Micromanagement Sims/Planning

[SevenSpirits]

In place: 12t to build 1st worker
2N: 1t delay + 11t to build 1st worker
1NE: 12t to build 1st worker
1N: 10t to build first 1st worker

In place waits +1 turn to get the farm up. It gets about +17 commerce however since it works the FP early. It has just one forest. It is the only spot that allows a second city on the plains hill between deer and cow.

2N has forests and all 3 early resources but loses most of the river, so if we want to use bureau effectively we might have to move the palace.

1NE is similar to 2N, but is down 1h/t after the first worker is done, and has better long-term bureaucracy prospects.

1N starts fastest and isn't bad long term. It loses 1f/t from calendar until biology and trades a grassland for a hill. It blocks all visible plains hills from being settled on by our second city.

[shadyforce]

First impression i would settle in place to work those juicy FPs at the capital and save the cow and deer for the 2nd city. I think it might be best long term even if the sims have the 1st worker/farm/settler a turn or two earlier in a site further north.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Anyone want to make a sandbox?

I suspect 2N will be the best - plains hill, 7 forests, 2 strong foods, 2 other foods, etc etc. Some good overall options.

Someone upload a sandbox and we can all sim it out

[Sullla]

This is one of the most complicated starts I've ever seen. Here is my first stab at the initial ~30 turns using the 1N starting position on the bananas. My gut feeling is that that is the best starting tile, but I have not tested it. Please do test the other potential starts!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19563179/ISDG/ISDG-micro.xls

This start is most similar to the one in Pitboss #4. It's very high in food, but the commerce potential is somewhat low in the early game, as the two food resources we probably want to work (irrigated corn and forested deer) are both 0 commerce tiles. This is also something absolutely critical that *MUST* be considered in all sims: the tech costs are extremely high on this map. Huge/Emperor means 1.8 times the base beaker value listed in the XML file. That means in practical terms:

Hunting/Fishing = 72 beakers
Mining/Mysticism = 90 beakers
Pottery = 144 beakers
Animal Husbandry = 180 beakers
Bronze Working = 216 beakers

In my initial sim here, food/production were running way out in front of research in the worst way imaginable. In particular, we have to make an extremely difficult decision on whether to research Bronze Working or Pottery first. The value of each tech also is dependent on where we choose to settle the capital. (2N of the start means rush BW; on the initial starting positiong, we probably want Pottery for those cottages.) Whichever one we get, the other will be delayed for some time. This has to be decided before the game starts, because it will factor into where we settle! You almost never want to go Pottery before BW, but it might possibly be justified here. I still would lean towards this tech path though:

Mining -> BW -> Pottery

Just because all of these starting positions are food rich, and that screams out for Slavery ASAP. I got the capital up to +11 food/turn with ease, for example.

Anyway... Worldbuilder sandbox is probably the best way to go, since it allows for much faster sims than typing it out. Just remember to keep those tech costs in mind! This is a *HUGE* advantage for our team, because we have excellent starting techs. Figuring out our initial micro plan is probably the single most important thing to do in the whole game. Let's get to work.

[Dantski]

I think I prefer settling in place.

Pro's

- No wasted turns moving settler
- Hill start, +1 prod and defensive bonus
- 4 FP tiles, 2 can be worked right away.
- 4 hills production
- 2 food tiles, Deer can be used at 2nd city perhaps with Cow

Con's

- Only 1 forest in BFC to chop
- Moving N gets more food (does the city need more food?)

Either way I'd move the warrior E - NE onto the plains hill, then maybe follow the river a little way.

[SevenSpirits]

Economically, BW first is usually wrong (and certainly for this start which is quite commerce-limited). Whipping is only a very mild efficiency gain without granaries.

The main problem with getting Pottery first is how long can we delay military techs? We'd really like to get Hunting before AH, and we need Mining for BW and Hunting for Archery. And we aren't guaranteed to have horses.

[Sareln]

Huge, Emperor, Sandbox.

SAVE

[Sareln]

Huge, Emperor, Sandbox.

SAVE

Buuuut, it's on quick. Let me fix that.

[Lord Parkin]

So the only options for not wasting our Expansive trait (early on) are going 1N or 1NE. Settling in place or 2N wastes the trait, at least initially. EDIT: Actually ALL options waste the expansive trait to some degree.

With starts this strong for everyone, Expansive is significantly nerfed. It's not a 3-turn difference in early Workers, more like 1-2 at best (and nothing at worst). Plus, it's going to be ages before we get both Bronze Working and Pottery.

[SIZE="1"]What did I say about wonder bonii being more useful than quicker Workers with high tech costs?[/SIZE] :neenernee

At least we have the ability to farm and road from the start, so we have something to do.

My initial inclination is to settle on the Banana, but that's before doing any sims. This start will probably require significant simming, probably out to at least T50 for a comparison of any decency.

Also, a thought: If Zulu have copper in their BFC connected to their capital via a river, then somebody is guaranteed to die early in this game. Even if not, they're only 2 techs from 2-mover spam. This kind of slow setup really benefits any troll team seeking an early rush.

EDIT: Whoops, misremembered Zulu as starting with Mining. Oh well, not too bad then. CFC and Civfr have the Mining starts.

[Lord Parkin]

You know, assuming roughly mirrored starts, Hunting isn't too bad a starting tech. The major loser is Fishing. Sucks to be WePlayCiv.