Dot mapping

[kjn]

I took a look at the agreement, (such as it is) between us and CivPlayers, and it only mentions the area southwest of Brick by Brick. I'd also adhere to the minimum-distance clause that is part of the agreement.

That's high-quality land to the north of CivPlayers, and I see no reason to cede it to CivPlayers or the Germans, especially since they don't have the tech to make use of it yet (no Iron Working, and maybe not Calendar). Getting access of our own to the northwestern ocean will also be quite helpful.

We also soon can build elephants, and with catapults, stone for walls, the SoZ, and the Great Wall, we are not an inviting target for invasion - even disregarding the huge amount of pop we have. And we will just have completed the HE in Horse Feathers.

Anyway, when looking at the screenshots, I think geopolitics hugely favour a war with the Germans. If we take the German land, we secure a huge swath of land (I think the Germans has coast to their north and northwest) for us that no one else realistically can claim until Astronomy. We also go from four neighbours (CFC, WPC, the Germans, and CivPlayers) to three.

[Shoot the Moon]

The problem though is if we settle that area now, even with elephants and catapults it is still entirely undefendable because it is so far removed from our core. Maybe that rice/gems/cow city could be defended, but all the way over to the ocean most certainly couldn't be.

[Sullla]

As much as I like that land too, we run the risk of being severely overstretched if we try to claim everything to the north of CivPlayers. I'm struggling to see how we would even defend what we have right now if more than one team tried to attack us. I believe that we should settle the spots that we can around our borders for now, and re-evaluate the extreme northwest down the road when we know more about how the diplomacy and/or war situation will shake out with Germans and CivPlayers.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Yeah, I really don't like the idea of claiming that land from Civplayers anytime in the near future. It's not like taking over the Germans won't already add more neighbours and fronts to defend. Not to mention it's all jungled crap that will need to back hacked out. I'd rather wait and turn it into immediately-productive Caste/SP workshops.

[Qgqqqqq]

Besides 5w is a highly aggressive starting city (in that area) because it settles very near their culture and basically blocks them off.

[kjn]

Yeah, I'm aware of all the problems with settling that area. That is precisely why I think we need to start planning it out relatively soon, so we can settle it in strength. We don't need to claim the area yet, but I think we can be ready to place our first city there soon after our Golden Age ends, say around T135.

If CivPlayers beat us to the area, so be it. But we also shouldn't just let them have it if they don't settle there in a reasonably timely manner (compare how CFC tarried with the oasis/stone location).

FWIW - I don't think we will acquire any new neighbours when we take over the German lands. I think their land is bounded by the ocean not only to the west, but to the north too. We've spotted tundra and ice in the northern part of their land, and they've also connected a crab, usually found in cold waters. Ruff Going should scout out the area soon, anyway.

[sooooo]

OK, so we have two settlers in build queue and only one firm spot to settle. Time to dicsuss more dots! Remember, most cities are worth building even if they only use marginal tiles for the ability to draft out of in about 20 turns time.

Here's a map of the deep south, including the blue spot we are agreed on:



I like the city for the deer on lime spot because it's on the coast for TGL, it's on fresh water and it can share the crabs occasionally.

I like yellow dot for the sheep city. It can do OK on four grasslands, a sheep and some coastline. A few plains forests, one to chop a granary and the rest to lumbermill.

Moving slightly north, here's an OK resourceless city (red) on the plains mine 3S of Focal Point:



It claims some otherwise unclaimed grasslands and grass hills and fills a gap in our empire on the way to yellow dot.

Finally, in the north we can't go NW any more because of the german city. But here's a nice pink dot (but a little cheeky, don't know if it violates any agreements):



Firstly it's coastal so benefits from TGL. Secondly it gives us a naval base for future wars. And it's the ultimate cheesy tile-sharing city. It barely needs any worker turns - we just slowly take over tiles at The Covenant and Simple life while those cities get their jungles chopped to build more improvements (which we want to do anyway). Then we draft it!

My preference is for pink dot with the settler from adventure one!

[NobleHelium]

I like most of those, but not red. I prefer our long-standing location of 4W of Starfall's fish, which shares the corn. It grabs the same missing tiles as red.

I'm dubious about lumbermilling the plains forests. I would just chop them (probably into a forge) and work the coasts for whipping.

None of the spots besides blue are all that good for the second settler, but I guess pink is the best out of them.

[Tyrmith]

If they were better we probably would have already have settled them.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I like most of those, but not red. I prefer our long-standing location of 4W of Starfall's fish, which shares the corn. It grabs the same missing tiles as red.

I'm dubious about lumbermilling the plains forests. I would just chop them (probably into a forge) and work the coasts for whipping.

None of the spots besides blue are all that good for the second settler, but I guess pink is the best out of them.

By the time we get most of these online, we'll be mostly done with slavery. I'm generally dubious of the value of lumbermills. We'd be better to chop into infrastructure and use caste/SP workshops, after guilds/chemistry.