Oh, I suppose 1SW is also a good option. It keeps the sheep while also gaining three river tiles, although it's not riverside. It also lets me work the deer immediately and only loses one turn. But it has the major drawback of not being on a plains hill.
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[SPOILERS] don't call it a comeback [luddite comes back]
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(January 5th, 2015, 14:24)SevenSpirits Wrote: On second thought... maybe I should just settle in place, and build an early settler down to the river. I couldn't settle anywhere visible since it's too close, but I could probably settle on what looks like a forest plains 1 south of the deer. Then that city could just focus purely on cottages while my capital just does workers and settlers. I could do a really extreme opening with an imperialistic leader and build a settler first. With a 2/2 city tile and a 1/2 plains forest tile, plus 65% on the hammers, I could get 9 production right away, and finish the settler in just 11 turns. But um that's probably too extreme. A much better option would probably be worker->settler, improving the sheep then the deer, and lets the new city work a camped deer right away. That also gets an early trade route going between the cities. A downside of that strategy is that I'll need to start with hunting, which means it'll take me that much longer to research pottery. But having the oasis from the start somewhat makes up for that.
Extremely weird gambit?
 
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld 
edit: ignore this, all my numbers for tech costs were way off.
So how about some numbers. Techs cost I think 15% more than their base on this map. Hunting, Ag, and Wheel are all 60 beakers base, AH is 110, and pottery is 80. So on this map hunting, ag, and wheel cost 69, AH costs 126.5, and pottery costs 92. I'd start with 8 commerce plus 2 from the oasis or 1 from the sheep pasture. Workers are 60, settlers are 100. I'd have 2 hammers and 5 food while working the oasis, for 7 production assuming i'm not expansive. Once I improve the pasture i'd have 2 hammers and 7 food, for 9 production on the settler assuming i'm not imp. So I could build a worker in 9 turns with 3 overflow. On the 4th turn after that I'd improve the sheep, with 24 production in the bank on the settler. Then I'd need another 9 turns to finish the settler, with some overflow. So all together 9 + 3 + 9 = 21 turns until the settler comes out. Meanwhile i've spent 12 turns producing 10 commerce, and 9 producing 9 commerce (that's after switching to the sheep pasture. Let's say I start with hunting/wheel. I could research agriculture(7 turns, 1 overflow), then animal husbandry with 2 prereqs for a 40 % bonus (5 turns at 14 beakers + 5 turns at 12 beakers, 4 overflow). So in total 17 turns, leaving plenty of time to camp the deer before the settler gets to its spot. Then I think 9 turns to finish pottery. I can't quite get pottery before the city is settled, but it's close. Worker takes 4 turns to improve the sheep, leaving 8 turns until the settler comes out. 3 turns each to build a road on the forest tiles, two turns to camp the deer while the settler is finishing, one more while the settler moves, and then it can finish the camp the same turn the city goes down. So that's awesome. I did the tech costs assuming that I started with hunting/wheel but I could actually start with any combination of hunting/wheel/agriculture, and it doesn't matter. Whatever it is I'll just research the 3rd first, before my worker is done. ...unless I'm expansive, imp, inca, or india in which case all the numbers are different.
What if I was India instead? They start with mysticism and wheel in this mod. So I have to start by spending 7 turns on hunting. Then I could do 7 turns on agriculture, and 10 turns on AH, for a total of 24 turns. So I couldn't even start improving the deer until 3 turns *after* the settler is done. And meanwhile the worker has nothing to do except build roads everywhere (but hey, at least it doesn't waste turns moving onto the forest :/). I might be able to improve that slightly by being financial and doing fishing instead of agriculture though. Like maybe 21 turns instead, although not having agriculture might be a problem also.
Inca would be even worse. My worker would really have nothing to do after finishing the pasture, and they wouldn't be able to substitute fishing for agriculture because they start with agriculture. I think I'm going to rule out Inca. India is harder, they *might* work but it definitely sacrifices some power in the opening.
Huts are on in this game, right? How about not caring about starting techs at all and just deciding to be lucky instead?
 But even seriously, huts shift the weight in civ selection a bit towards UU and UB and reduce the importance of starting techs. IIRC correctly in PB13 and PB18 roughly 50 % of players popped a tech or even two during the early game. The most frustrating case example was PB13, where I remember of being jealous of plako's leader traits, but got some peace of mind from the fact that he had weak starting techs that would compromise his start... until he popped agriculture on Turn 0.
Other considerations.
Financial? Well, it gives me an extra commerce right away from the oasis, so that's tempting. It basically speeds up AH by 1 turn, as best as I can tell. But then I lose it to work the sheep, and then after that I can just work river cottages. But *eventually* I'll be working coast and non-river cottages, so then it becomes good again. so in the short term it's good, medium-term bad, long-term good. Expansive? That's tricky. If I work the oasis initially it does nothing, since I'd only have two hammers. If I work a forest instead it give me an extra hammer, so I can get the worker done sooner, especially if I switch to the deer. But then I'm also losing commerce, so there won't be anything for the worker to build after it's done pasturing and building the first road. I think if I'm expansive I have to shift to a totally different opening, like maybe going for bronze working right away and doing a lot of early chopping. I think if I start with hunting/mining I can just barely get bronze working in time to keep the worker busy, although it'll require working the oasis for a few turns instead of the forest elephant. Imperialistic? Maybe I could grow to size 2 before making the settler, and still get it out fast? |
