[SPOILERS] B4ndit's thread (Darius of Ottomans)

[B4ndit]

So this will be my first multiplayer game from the start to the finish (hopefully) on this board

Snake picking didn't go exactly as planned and I ended up with Darius (Fin/Org) of Ottomans. I was aiming for Darius of Sumerian but Sumerian has been picked one turn before me and that left me with two options in mind:

• I was heavily thinking about Darius of HRE, but HRE has very bad starting techs and with Noble difficulty I thought that Rathouse + Organized would be "a little bit" overkill.
  
• Darius of Ottomans seemed better choice - I just love Ottomans UB which with cheaper Courthouses from Organized civic AND financial should give pretty nice economic boost
  

Catwalk was suggesting me Egypt, but IMO Egypt is very weak unless someone is planning early warmongering. In hindsight I think Victoria (Fin/Imperialistic with double settler production speed) was a better choice on this game settings. Imperialistic will allow to grab more terrain before the opponents and Noble difficulty means low maintenance cost.

Putting everything behind, I'm planning to...

... go straight into the bronze working and production worker -> worker -> settler. But that depends on how fast I will be able to get bronze working for chopping and/or on the availability of some food resource from Agriculture.

I'm also considering worker -> warrior -> worker -> settler because this map is pretty small, but it's also a quick game speed so I don't know yet

Hopefully other players won't read this plan and won't ride my capital too early

[Catwalk]

Need a better thread name

Good thing you didn't pick HRE (especially without knowing starting resources), but Egypt would have been the better choice IMO. The Ottoman UB is not that good, and the UU is generally a Win-More unit. Egypt's unit is useful for anything and makes opponents very fearful of you early on. Even without attacking, you get a big territorial advantage just for that reason. Try not to get into too much of a builder mindset, you can easily have a few units parading around your opponent's territory without planning on conquering them.

I was thinking about Victoria too, and the lower upkeep does support that. However, it will be a smallish toroidal map so upkeep will by no means be small in spite of Noble difficulty.

[Catwalk]

Screenshot

[B4ndit]

Everyone has started with a scout instead of warrior, so I think I will have to go worker -> warrior -> worker -> settler. Or maybe worker -> warrior -> settler -> worker? What do you think?

I don't think that starting with worker is a security risk, because:

1 nobody has a warrior
2. it's a quick game => faster building units => units move relatively slower compared to building => even if some will rush me with a fresh built warrior I will have time to produce it after the first worker.

[Catwalk]

I wouldn't worry too much about being rushed, focus 100% on economy so you don't fall behind. I'd even be tempted to go Worker / Settler / Warrior / Worker or something to that effect. Working the gems isn't that great early on, so your early warrior doesn't give you all that much.

How did you move your scout?

[B4ndit]

Scout started on forest 1N from the Capital. I want to move it in a circle around the capital starting from his current position heading east (next move 1NE, and later again 1NE or 1E).

Worker -> Settler (chop) -> Warrior (don't chop) -> Worker (don't chop)? Even now I could get Warrior in 3 turns with minimal growth, so chopping warrior doesn't make sense imo.

[Catwalk]

Worker => farm wheat => road to new city => farm wheat for new city => mine gems (matching growth to size 2)

Or something like that. You need to put some turn numbers on plans like that if they are to be any good, lost worker turns are a big loss.

[B4ndit]

Chopping is that underpowered on quick games?

[Catwalk]

It's useful, but far less powerful than on Normal. Takes 3 turns on both Quick and Normal, you get 14 hammers on Quick and 20 on Normal. It's a good way to fill up worker turns when you don't need more improvements, but I wouldn't make a plan around it. As a side note, Fishing gives you access to a 3/0/3 tile right away and is a cheap tech. Try simming out turn numbers on paper, no need to make a full sandbox for it.

[SevenSpirits]

Chopping is that underpowered on quick games?

Not just on quick: At normal speed, it's almost always better to improve resources in preference to chopping. But on quick speed, chopping is only 2/3 as good a use of the worker's time as on normal, so it compares even worse.