[SPOILERS] scooter's sunny sunday stroll

[dazedroyalty]

The road probably won't make a difference if you're heading for the rice next. You'll waste some turns getting there no matter what. If you had AH already it would have delayed your ability to hook up the cow by 1T

[scooter]

I love your map musings Scooter. Even moreso as I know The Truth[SIZE="1"]™[/SIZE]

Thanks! I'm glad - it's fun. And occasionally I even get stuff right.

The road probably won't make a difference if you're heading for the rice next. You'll waste some turns getting there no matter what. If you had AH already it would have delayed your ability to hook up the cow by 1T

True, but the cow hookup is more constrained by population growth and the presence of better tiles (and early slavery) at this point. But yeah, short of it is that it's a pretty trivial and non-impactful mistake thankfully.

[scooter]

T16 is off to the races

Exploration is going good if by "good" you mean finding zero habitable land whatsoever.



This map seems absolutely built for the standard online MP "build 3 cities then kill" style of play. Thankfully, I have the best leader/civ for that style too. So I'm not complaining. The motherland:



Gonna go explore the northwest next and find other potential victims. Also, a look inside my explosive capital after I hit enter:



Yeah, it's going to go from size 1 to size 3 in 3T. Before granary. I like Civ4. And before you say "but quick speed and silly start" shut up. I know . I'm just barely going to finish the rice on time actually. As I said, plan is size 4 then double-whip settler, then probably granary and we'll see from there. I vaguely considered size 6 then triple-whip settler, but I'm not sure how profitable that actually is without a granary. I'm pretty happy with this opening overall. Others are bigger than me:



But it sure doesn't show in the demos:



So yeah, someone is twice my pop and only 1F and 1H ahead of me. Yay double worker start. Overall, I think my opening is probably fastest opening out of everyone's. I didn't sim anything out, but I'm not sure there's a better way to do it. Anyone have any ideas now that it's done and non-spoilery now? I know from the comments here that some really bright micro minds are reading this, so I'm curious if there would have been any different approaches here that would have been even stronger. The opening few turns of most games are really fascinating to me.

As a side note, I think it might be fun sometimes to have an informal "opening competition" that gives everyone a scenario and challenges players to come up with the best possible opening 30T or so. Especially if you did it on a map like PBEM17 that had like 25 options. Just a random idea that we'll probably never do.

[scooter]

T17 spies an intruder



Well hello there Sian. Don't come too close or I'll kill you seeing as I have a second warrior about to complete. I actually may bait him in, but I'd really not like to have to take a 50/50 shot at losing a warrior already (despite the fact that I could easily clean up with my second warrior) so I'd rather him just run away and I'll take the 99% shots on warriors with War Chariots later . None of my tiles will get pillaged, so I'm fine. Also, EP rate with him is 4/0, so he hasn't met anyone else. I kept EPs entirely on AT. It'll tip of Sian that I met someone else, but AT will not know. Anyways, if he pushes into my borders I'll probably try to bait him into a tile that I can take him 2v1. If he runs away, I may chase for a bit just to secure myself some breathing room.

I do think it might be better if I was growing on a granary right now instead of a warrior. However, I'd be looking at an annoying choke if I wasn't sinking hammers into a warrior, so no regrets there. If this was AI Diplo, I prob could have been building granary and done the declare war, offer peace, flash warrior for emphasis routine and been safe. Ah well. Also, my exploring warrior found some habitable land!



HAHA NOPE. Honestly, this "884 tile" map is probably more like 400.

[scooter]

T18 is annoyed by French warrior

This was played this morning, but I moved like this:



This allowed me to protect workers if he moves up on them and try to force him into a spot he doesn't want. Exploring warrior finds <insert joke about desert>

[scooter]

T19 is ready for fireworks

Now we're caught up on turns. Anyways, Sian moved like this:



This is annoying. However, I've finished the rice already. I have also showed him I have dueling workers already but such is life. So this is how I responded:



Road build 1E of the capital. That means if he moves anywhere south (SW, S, SE) he is dead. So his only choice now is to run away, and he cannot hurt me other than forcing me to take a 50/50 shot on the first attack. Exploration:



Yep, those be floodplains through the tile bleed. I think this is AT, but I'm not 100% sure. Capital:



Growing that fast, it's tempting to granary until size 6 and then triple whip settler... But I'm still not sure that's worth it given that I have workers ready to go on the second city so I might as well rush it out now. Anyways, it'll be 1T into settler, whip, then granary, then probably worker and then settle for horses and go bash heads. Then once I have a couple WC's I'll take whatever stone I want and nobody can do a thing about it. I've caught up in city sizes:



Someone is building a settler at size 2? That seems like strong considering we have 3 wet agri sources so why not at least work all of them..? Demos:



And that's it. Looking good.

[NobleHelium]

So I just read your "guest post" post...fucking hilarious.

[scooter]

So I just read your "guest post" post...fucking hilarious.

I wasn't sure if it would actually be believable, but I had a couple people tell me they believed it was real guest posts until halfway through the Krill one or at Locke. Either way, glad people seemed to enjoy it. Turn report coming up next.

[scooter]

T20 gets first blood

Well kind of. Sian stayed put, so I wasn't about to let him get a fortify bonus or anything, so as planned I attacked. First warrior lost the 50/50 flip, but second cleaned up without a scratch:



Settler will be whipped next turn (t21). I'll road the tile the warrior is on then. Then I'll road the desert 1N of the oasis and move the settler onto it and settle.

Wait... Actually... Is road cost identical in a desert?

Anyways, AT:



His Creative borders give him tons of warning, so he'll see me next turn.

[SevenSpirits]

Wait... Actually... Is road cost identical in a desert?

On quick speed, yes.