[PB64] Lurking Randomly

[Charriu]

I did do a quick count and I think if SD doesn't go over to that island that Commodore will end up with the most food resources without fighting.

I think SD crossing the seas becomes increasingly unlikely with every step he takes east.

[Mjmd]

When he was talking about settling west early on I was really worried for Commodore. Now I am not.........

I forgot to mention but he also lost a lot of river tiles by moving. I know grassland hills aren't great to cottage, but better than the plains now south of him. At least his current settle spot has a lot of forests to chop and tech requirements are lower. He can always settle the corn later and doesn't have to worry about all those hills.

[Charriu]

I agree. With hills you can at least replace some cottages with windmills to increase food without loosing to much commerce

[Mjmd]

Ginger popped sailing off a hut. Oh huts. That is a big deal. I was wondering if Ginger or Amica was going to get and I was rooting for Ginger with his limited land.

[Mjmd]

I like Gingers plan for Oracling machinery, but mainly for the crossbow part. The rest of his math / reasons don't really make sense to me.

Edit: I hadn't realized the serfdom part, but he is still somehow calculating T70-80 serfdom....... Just tech masonry and build the GLH!!! Hell he is already planning on delaying Oracle to tech Metal Casting, whats assuming no one else beats him to it for a bit longer.

[Mjmd]

I really hope Ginger has more land to his west or south, or we're in an extreme duel. I'm actually encouraged by the layout if he does, though, not a bad little island setup to my north potentially.

This is the reason I like Tostestra, btw, crap terrain means not too many cities but neat long distances.

I find this funny as he actually has the shortest distance on the map, but yes that is why I was ok with this map. There are some long distances that I'm not a huge fan of, but its all crap terrain. I'm interested in his thoughts once Naufs scout shows up from the other direction.


I want to emphasize how bad I thought the Tostestra map scrip was though even though I still want to edit this map...... I'm not going to lie I kind of want to make a map now......

[Mjmd]

The big issue is that because of our terrible techs (and maybe my weakness at openings; would lurkers be interested in playing out our start in the lurker thread?), our start sucks. Like, really sucks. Our second city gets out T42-ish, and it doesn't get much better from there.

Your wish is my bored night.

I didn't keep track of exact timings but on T42 I had two cities (both size 2) and two workers with copper improved (hooked up shortly after). 3rd city wasn't until T51 and 4th T59. T59 I had 4 cities, 3 workers, and 2 grans, which makes me think it would have started snowballing nicely. Capital still had 4 forests left for something (/vague hand wave). At that point I had masonry selected, so maybe T75 GLH if after 4th city just produced another worker from 2nd and grew / mined capital with some chops. Happiness is a real issue and 5th city would probably be next to the plains sheep just for the gold..... to be fair exp/pro GLH is good for crap coastal cities.

[Mjmd]

I'm kind of already sick of Commodore comparing everything to Totestra. He could have insisted and ended up with something like this map I just rolled:



Yes Byzantium can island hop to 4 different land masses and a couple players are just horrible squeezed. You have to set them all to the same continent of course or else you end up with someone on an astro island alone.....

Now mind Byzantium only has a single clam for food vs India double fish + clam so its possible India rushes Byzantium and then just wins in a lark instead. Rome which has the next most room both on main land mass but also its own mini continent also only starts with a single food and the other positions are 2-3 food strong, but they are really all over the place.

Lets be clear I don't think anyone but Byzantium, India, or Rome have a shot at winning this game. This map is very typical for Totestra maps I rolled.......... Which is why I really wanted to roll a different script.

Anyways, fell asleep with the kids and now I 'm awake in the middle of the night so  off to sim Commodore's start / maybe just actually play it vs AI.

[Charriu]

I honestly would play on an astro island alone.

[Mjmd]

Commodore start is as predicted worse than Amica's due to lack of fish. T42 I had just settled 2nd city T40 and just netted the clams there. 3rd clams at capital wasn't done yet and copper was 1 turn from done. That being said at least 2nd city did grab new food vs Amica's I just stole the sheep. I did like going sailing early, but mainly for trade connection. I didn't feel the need to rush to MC and instead grabbed AH first. Start has good tech with all the water tiles and wanted to settle cow as 3rd to avoid having to build a galley / go far west. 3rd city was T52 vs T51 for Amica, but still only 1 worker. I'm actually not sure if he is supposed to build a 2nd worker. I did, but I regretted it somewhat as I didn't settle 4th city until T65. I did get to start cottaging, but if I had simmed I probably would have had the second city produce a settler instead of worker and have capital 5>3 a granary (or lighthouse) instead of settler. 3rd city would then have to do some 1 pop whips for an axe and then probably go for a 1 pop worker whip.

Late edit: I also hate Commodore moving because it gave him 1 less forest to chop early. He took his slow start and then made it slower........ Edit x2: actually you save a turn for 1st settler and its work boat and get to share copper (unknown but still) so probably ok.