Bunbunmaru News Reports In! (Kuro Spoiler Thread)

[WilliamLP]

I don't really know enough about tile reveals to plot a proper course, I wager.

Yeah, the rules aren't completely obvious but they're worth knowing to plany where you can put your units where they can't be seen by another player (and vice versa).

Basically:

- all hills see 2 tiles in any direction unless blocked by another hill or forest. (Conversely a hill can also be seen 2 tiles in any direction.)
- peaks can see or be seen 2 tiles in any direction, over a hill or forest. (But not over another peak or forest hill.)
- For vision to or from a hill or peak along a "knight move" you can see unless the two tiles between are both blocked.
- Land tiles can see two tiles away over water.

[Kuro]

[Kuro]

I forgot, on our microplan, did it matter what forest the Worker moved in to chop on T15?

[WilliamLP]

Good question. I think it would depend on what city to settle next, but can't really say for sure before copper is revealed. I'll update the sandbox today since the other games are stalled.

[WilliamLP]

Here's a sandbox with most of the map updated, and set to turn 15.

The worker is going to chop both the western forests, so it's a question of where he should end up when both chops are done. I think probably ending on the hill gives most options, so he should chop the north forest first?

Thoughts on the first settler...




First, Seven's micro-potluck competition in the general forum is an amazing learning resource if you read through all the entries and Seven's comments on them, and watch Krill and Sullla's videos. It opened my eyes to a few things.

With this start, unfortunately there's no second city location screaming at us, and we also have a very close neighbour with War Chariots to consider. This isn't a small consideration!

A second city site needs:
- To be productive as soon as possible above all else.
- To be good with just its first ring tiles, since we're not Creative and won't have Mysticism for a little while.
- In particular it needs to immediately work food.
- Ideally not much of a burden for worker turns, defense, and maintenance.
- At least a couple of forests for infrastructure chops.

I think we basically need to settle west first. This is because it will set the borders with Bandit, and if we don't, he will for sure. Also there are no fantastic close locations elsewhere. We'll see copper soon, but even if copper is east I think we might need to settle west first and then get a fast second settler for the copper.

A - This looks tempting to grab all the resources but I feel it would be an extremely bad idea. 4 tiles away from Bandit it's a declaration of permanent war, and can't be defended well or reinforced well. It requires a ton of worker turns for roads.

B - This is the place for a city if we feel early war is inevitable, since on a hill it can be defended much better for the whole rest of the game. It's the halfway point between us, and thus grabs quite a bit more than our fair share of land. If I were Bandit I'd be upset by this plant too. It would need AH immediately to get food as well.

C - The site that gets all resources while having corn in first ring. If Bandit weren't there, it might be the strongest. It looks a little less aggressive than B but it's also more tempting to attack not being on a hill.

D - This is a site that may make a peaceful relationship possible (if it is not inevitable that war will happen from the start!) It also shares the flood plain which is extremely nice, either for a farm to pass back and forth for growth or a cottage to always work for the rest of the game. It also gets corn in the first ring.

E - This is like D but it wastes a flood plain, and it would need researching AH immediately. What it does allow is another city to the south to claim the crab. (But the crab can also be worked by a city 3S1E of the capital.)

What's good is that we'll get a settler before Bandit, and possibly before anyone else in the game.

What's not good is that Bandit is going to view us as a weak team, and a very nice potential target for early war, with the civ most suited for an early rush.

If I thought peace were possible, I'd settle on D probably. If I thought he's going to rush us with WCs for sure no matter what we do, I'd settle B or C, and then we'd be treating every turn as a chess game with war units basically. I'm not sure if peace will end up being possible.

[Kuro]

I like B if we think he is going to rush us or feel we can defend it if he tries. I don't think we should play for peace, since I doubt settling there will stop a WC rush if he already is wanting one.

Unless someone else has Expansive + Mining, we're 100% Settler first, unless someone built a Settler first build. Even then, they need to match ivory and our Wheat food resource and go BW first.

[Bruindane]

Wow, that's a really neat analysis. If you take B, it would be nice to be able to expand the border sooner (to get the deer hill and mountain peak) for expanded visibility. Not sure how that fits into the priorities.

[BaII]

If we are really scared of a rush from bandit, then we should settle copper first for spears above all else, then grab city site B hopefully, as it seems to be the most efficient landgrab. Though we definitely want to be able to easily get culture in there before we go and grab that city site.

[WilliamLP]

I think if we don't settle that area first, Bandit will plant his first settler there for sure, and it would mean he'd completely dominate us in land for the rest of the game. And we'd be playing entirely in this little area to the east against the coast. My personality read on Bandit from two games I've seen him in is that he'll try to be very aggressive and bully the early game.

If me, I think I have to accept that Myst isn't going to be a priority for a while, not before wheel, hunting, AH, probably pottery. The capital will get its third ring borders on turn 51 which can help a little. But a western city doesn't really need a border pop to be productive for quite a while with those flood plains there.

It's not that easy for him to get chariots up, as long as he doesn't have horses in the capital. His second city will be very behind ours since he started with a 15 turn worker.

Hopefully we'll see copper in a nice place and we can start looking at micro plans.

[Kuro]

Do you think we should go for an early-ish Animal Husbandry? It would allow B to Sheep early and give us insight into where horses are, which could be important with Bandit and WCs.