[SPOILERS] This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land. But Mostly Mine.

[Commodore]

Everyone starts with a scout, yes.

What's the OpForceAnal?

[mackoti]

In an obvious attempt to generate more frequent views, here are my thoughts on how to open this game.

Russia starts with Mining and Hunting. With RBmod, I have two good food resources available at the capital with these starting techs (river sheep and plains cow) without needing to spend time researching the (relatively) expensive Agriculture (103b) immediately. The map size is Huge, so it take a bit longer to research than on smaller map settings.

I want Bronze Working (207b) for safety as well as the obvious Slavery and chops. On this crowded map, there are probably going to be several teams who decide to swing for the fences early and eliminate a neighbor like 7 did early in PB16 (I'm ded-lurking Gaspar/Noble that one and I lack complete information, so don't tell me if I'm wrong there). I'm planning on skimping on defense super early because everyone has scouts (if this is wrong, PLEASE let me know!) and pushing hard on expansion until around the time that barbs show up. That will be T25 on Monarch, but there are typically several more turns until they'll enter borders, so ~T30 I should be ok vs. barbs. I'll surely make contact with another civ by then, though, so depending on who and how close that occurs to my borders, I may have to play this a little more conservatively, and having the ability to divert a chop into defense will be important. Ideally, I'll make a single warrior (T19) prior to settling my second city (between T29-31). If someone shows up before then, I'll dump a chop into a spear or axe, assuming I've got copper nearby. If someone researches archery crazy early and rushes me, well, I don't want to play assuming that is going to be the case and have a slow start. In that case it would probably be better to die early than suck the entire game. And if I lack bronze at my start, I'll just hope that Commodore did the same with everyone. So far everyone who has claimed their civ except Jowy has settled T0, and Jowy is prone to all kinds of craziness. If I'm next to him, all bets are off anyway because he apparently takes slight at anything and would declare on the map if a jungle grew in the wrong spot.

So, skimping on units early is a calculated risk I'm willing to take. Bronze Working will be first for me, for faster expansion and defensive flexibility and resource acquisition, then The Wheel and Agriculture. I want The Wheel to keep the workers busy while moving between improvements and for building a defensive road network, as well as for the trade route commerce. I've found, though, that I lose more commerce delaying the second city if I wait for the roads to catch up to the settler/workers. The gems are on the river, so they're worth 1f/2h/7c. That's way better than the 2c I'd get through an immediate trade route to the capital, so I'm fine leaving the trade connection off for a few turns. I'll hook up the gems, then borders will pop for the pigs, then I'll work on the roads.

I don't need Agriculture immediately because my worker or workers will be headed toward city #2 before I have time to hook up the wet wheat, which I will confess does hurt to leave sitting there. But I'll let the capital's foodhammers make a worker to get that online so we can grow upward after city #2 comes online. City #2 has gems and I'm eager to get those online ASAP to speed up my tech rate. The sheep is 5f/2c, the cow 3f/3h, and the wet wheat is 5f/1h. I'm only losing 1fh/turn by ignoring the wheat for now. For 103b super early when I'm stagnating growth anyway building workers and settlers, I can live with this.

I'll grow Yellowstone to size two, fix up the sheep and cow, then go from there with a few different potential paths. My options look like this:




I've put the turns builds complete alongside the turn that techs complete in all of these. The signposts on the map indicate the turn a worker action completes. This is my fastest second city, T29. All I've built is a worker, warrior, and the settler. I'm pretty sure in this run that I forgot to swap to slavery, so take ~13 beakers away from Agriculture. So, ~32/103. The gems are hooked up on T32 and the pigs pastured on T37.




I believe I remembered to swap to slavery while the settler was enroute on this one, so I'm 80/103 into Agriculture here on T31 when the city is settled. I've built 2 workers, a warrior, and a settler, and need only 3t for a third settler. Overall, this is, I think, the best option. After the third build (settler) in Yellowstone, I'll build units while I grow onto the wheat and hills. Here, the gems are again hooked up on T32 and the pigs on T37, but I'm an extra worker ahead because I get a few chops in.




Settling on T34 with a road network. This required worker, warrior, worker, worker, settler, (overflows for 1t warrior EoT). T34 is just too slow getting going on the gems, though.

Obviously, all of this is early speculation based on what I know of the map, but it seems like a good early plan until something better comes along.

I know everyone likes to revolt to slavery when setler in move , is like a trend, but i want to ask did you considered to setle second city 1 east from gems and research agriculture and work with that city wheat right away?I think in 4 turns city is size 2 just in time to work the mined gems.Could be a faster start then bw first...

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Mack, you could be right about that. A lot depends on scouting information and where the seafood is on that coast, if I am fortunate enough to get any. The location you mention would make an awesome production city. I would probably swap the wheel for agriculture in that scenario because the roads just aren't as important as the chops (edit: and primarily knowing where my copper is or is not). Given how light I'm planning on running with defense and scouting units, I'm going to keep my scout close to home, so I should get good local map knowledge to have a better idea of exactly where to settle by the time I make this decision. In the meantime, I'm going to try out your suggested spot to see how it compares. Thanks!

Commodore, I have no idea what you meant by OpForceAnal and I'm almost scared to ask.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Unless you mean you want an opponent force analysis? Or want me to rank my opponents? I could probably do that.

[Commodore]

Unless you mean you want an opponent force analysis? Or want me to rank my opponents? I could probably do that.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

One possible strike against mack's suggested city is the shape of the coastline. If the coast continues in a primarily diagonal line running NE/SW, that tile doesn't leave a lot of good options to capture seafood, just the pig and the FP tiles from what I can see, neither of which I want to waste under a city. That said, there is lots of scouting (and waiting) to do, so sim away!




T30: Build order worker, warrior, settler. Techs: The Wheel, Agriculture, BW. I decided that farming the wheat before pasturing the sheep slows down tech too much, and I want both of these prior to settling the second city. The lost foodhammer does not slow down any builds up to this point and I net a half finished road somewhere that isn't critical this way.




T31: I get a second worker for settling the city a turn later. Probably this is a better plan overall, even though I don't have a connecting road and won't have for several more turns. But, that's worth getting the city up almost as fast and having an extra worker, plus knowledge regarding the fate of my missing present and close copper.




T34: Too slow. I want those gems sooner. I spend turns building roads instead of chopping. This also has 2 workers, a warrior and the settler.

I'm sure I'll keep at this as I scout more. Thanks for the comments!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T1

Despite all of my waffling back and forth, T0 research was left on BW. For T1, I left research on BW (26/207 at EoT) and moved the scout to its predetermined replay position on the PH 1N of the gems. I'll scout the coast moving NW/NE next turn to get an idea of whether Mack City strands any seafood. If not, then I can swap to Agriculture and still get it finished as the worker completes, so no harm done. If it does strand seafood, I better come up with another plan in a hurry, because the PH plant also invalidates other plants for seafood. I'll know next turn for sure which way I'm going.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

The more important thing going on right now:



hammer

Edit: Before anyone reams me for copying Obama's bracket, I had my picks in before his were announced.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Couldn't resist one more swipe at this before waiting for more map info:




BW first, then Ag. Who needs roads? Three chops gets us the extra worker, so in this run city#2 is up T30 with the wheat only needing one more worker turn to complete. That's still 5t to growth at 22/22 and I'll have the gems ready. I don't think I can streamline this any further.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T2




I can move Mack City 1S and settle it on T31 rather than T30. That then leaves a city that would grab clams, fish, and pigs. If this is the same landmass, it would also invalidate an opposing city on the PH 1W of the fish. Too bad I apparently need to move this city's loacation. I was starting to love the idea of having a second city production powerhouse. Four mines is good enough for an early production city, but it isn't the same as six, not by half.*

*Sentence submitted for nomination for the Yogi Berra Excellence in Reporting Award.