[SPOILERS] Marco Outfoxes Everyone Else

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 4. There's a river and a coast to the north. That 2/1 grassland woods tile has an Appeal of 0, which hints at rainforest or marsh to the northeast. A *very* good spot for a second city, where I can put a quick Campus and make some ships in the future.



The warrior will move northwest. I am tracking everyone's scores, but I won't make a spreadsheet or anything. Williams482 takes a screenshot of the Score Tracker every turn, and I'll probably start doing that when we get to turn 25 or so.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 5.



A mountain range to the northwest AND the northeast. That Eagle Warrior won't wander too far from the mountain pass.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 6

This is (obviously) a very nice second city, with lots of chops, lots of food/production/gold yield, and a lovely campus too. If I put a Government Plaza here, which I probably should, it would also shift the entire axis of my empire northward, which would have seismic consequences for the rest of my game.

My goal now is to settle it before turn 25.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 7


Massive compliments to Kaiser for the map. No wonder he "hid" all the mountains from my start location - I would 100% have chosen Inca, and at least 2 other people would've done so too.

Yeah, I think I can work very well with such a mountainous, forested map. Army movement will be slow like PBEM19, but science yield and city development will be absolutely wonderful. I still don't quite like how low-food my capital location is, but that issue will solve itself if I play this game right.

The barbarian scout is definitely doomed. I got quite lucky that I decided to go west with my initial scout, because now I can probably cut him off.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 9



I'm now working the 2 food /2 production tile instead of the 1/4. My plan is to synchronize city growth with my Builder, so that I get to transition to a Settler right away at turn 13. I should have 10 production/turn (2 from the Palace, 1 from the city center, 4 from the deer tile and 3 from a plains horse pasture), which I can use to train my Settler by t21, walk it northward, and settle by t27. Give or take 1 turn.

This isn't a perfect plan - there's a chance that I don't have a horse tile in my capital, or that I need to slow down to escort my Settler northward - but I feel relatively pleased with it.

Most importantly, I need to decide what Huitzilopochtli will build after the settler. I'll probably make more military, but I could benefit from a Monument too...

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 10


Strange to see a confluence of three rivers at a singular point. Hopefully the scout doesn't get attacked by the Spearman.

This seems like very challenging terrain for a new city. The only food tile is the wheat, and the only gold tile is the copper. This would be a MONSTER location for an Incan city, but unfortunately no one has picked Inca in this game...

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 11


This is very, very bad news. Huitzilopochtli is an *even worse* capital without any Horse tiles to beef it up. God of the Open Sky is probably not very feasible either, given the complete lack of Pasture-able resources so far.

This means that I don't need a Builder until Irrigation. (Sure, I could probably mine the Mercury once I expand to it, but are its yields worth working?) I switch to an Eagle Warrior for the next 2 turns until I can grow to 2 pop.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 13



Nothing too remarkable. The sea is labeled "Ocean and Lake", which leads me to think that it's surrounded by land on all sides like an inland sea. Also, it's got a different name than the sea in the north.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 14

I discover a new continent, but I don't get Era Score from it. Hmm...do you think this could be the Zulus' continent?


If you look closely, you can always see through the fog of war. The scout will keep going westward.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 15


Oh, this hurts. The best decision is for the scout to go west, and find out how far this bridge extends. This is because the ocean to the south (Panthalassic Ocean) is marked Ocean/Lake - this land bridge is undoubtedly the terrain that's causing the ocean to be marked Lake. Kaiser has designed a map where navies would be relatively limited, and invasions between north and south need to be funneled through this land bridge. Odds are it neatly cleaves the map in two - the question is, are the 5 civs distributed 2 vs 2 on either side of the bridge, with 1 just awkwardly hanging in the middle? Also, why make the land bridge 1 tile in width instead of 2?

Whatever. The point is, I am willing to throw my scout forward into the land bridge instead of the 20-30 land tiles present to my northwest. Once I do scout this area, it will probably be with a military unit instead of a scouting unit, because I don't need 3 movement speed for such a limited zone (and barbarians might spawn in this unknown once I plant my second city). So Huitzilopochtli better finish that Eagle Warrior rather quickly after it finishes the Settler.