[SPOILERS!] Grimace and wetbandit hope to stay on their side of the DMZ

[Grimace]

Ok, so let's see if I've learned anything about reading demos.

GNP: Most, like us, are working a tile with no additional commerce, but the person with the 18 is probably working either a coast or lake tile to get the two extra beakers. Or is 1 extra beaker worth 2 GNP? I'm not sure exactly how the calculation is made.

Prod: We and one other civ (almost certainly one of the other expansive civs) are working a 3 hammer forested plains hill, while everyone else is working tiles with no extra hammers (assuming they settled on their plains hill).

Food: Obvious we and the same civ working the FPH just have the capital's food. I'm not sure how it calculates the average, but it looks like a few people are working a 3f tile, but some are working a 2f tile, possibly the same person with the 18 GNP working a coastal seafood.

Soldiers: I have no idea how this breaks down. Given that everyone started with a scout, I'm not sure how someone ended up with 6000? How can that happen? Techs? Maybe that's from The Wheel.

Land Area: This one I know how to calculate. 7000 equates to our seven land tiles in the first ring. The 7666 average = 46 total land tiles among our competitors. We know one person for sure has all land in their first ring (9000). We know one person for sure has 3 coastal tiles (6000). That leaves 31 for the other 4 people. That could break down several ways, 9, 9, 7, 6...9, 8, 7, 7...etc. Most likely there are at least 2 fully landlocked capitals out there, but most are coastal.

Population is the same for everyone. Approval rate is the same for everyone except slightly higher for the Charismatic civ.

Life expectancy: It looks like one of our EXP brethren has quite a few forests in their first ring in order to have their health pumped up that much. Probably the same one working the FPH like we are.

[Grimace]

As discussed, I moved the scout to his original explore point prior to the restart so I won't be accused of shenanigans.



So, where to next? As I see it, our two best choices are either 1SE, 1SW to end up on the sheep hill, or 1NW, 1W to end up on the pig hill. You can see a grassland tile SW of the pigs, so we'll be able to see two tiles diagonally from there. The sheep tile looks like it has water to its south, forest to its west, and some kind of land SW. My instinct is to go for the sheep hill and see if there is a worthwhile spot for a city down there.

[wetbandit]

Yeah, Sheep hill, sounds good.

GNP: beakers are 1 for 1 with GNP. Right now its 2culture + 9 commerce + 4 EP + 1 extra beaker. It's possible someone started with an oasis 3/0/2. Or someone is working a 2 commerce tile or a riverside resource tile and settled on a commerce resource.

Soldiers: based on techs. Mongolia has Hunting (2k) + TW (4k). I believe that there was a change to the power value of barracks, I'd have to look that up.

Prod: It seems like a reasonable assumption that everyone started on plains hills.

Food: Yep.

[Grimace]

Moved the scout as agreed to the sheep/hill.



Exposed a fish off to the east that could be claimed along with the sheep by a city 1E of the sheep hill, which would be a production madhouse, especially if copper shows up on one of those unforested hills.

Where should I move him next? It looks like this is a narrow-ish piece of land moving south, so how far do I want to go before turning back to explore back near the capital? I'm thinking 1SW which should give us a good look to the west on that coastal hill.

Also took a shot of demos, but I'm not going to post it because nothing changed. Most likely nothing will for a few more turns until the first builds start completing, though I guess we could see some worked tile switching.

[Grimace]

The turn rolled, and although I could have waited, I'm impatient.

So I moved the scout 1SW, and revealed:



Quite a few tiles, including another fish. We can also tell that's another branch of land to the capital's SW. So now what? Do we keep exploring down this branch, or pull back to explore other places near the capital?

My opinion is to move the scout SE just to expose a few more tiles, then start heading back towards the capital. I'm thinking we probably don't want to settle our second city too far away if we can help it, anyway.

What do you think? I won't move again until I hear your input on this one, or the next turn is about to roll.

[wetbandit]

I agree with SE. None of this water is lake, right? Maybe there's a landbridge which connects the south to the east.

What's up with these hamlets on hills?

[Grimace]

I agree with SE. None of this water is lake, right? Maybe there's a landbridge which connects the south to the east.

What's up with these hamlets on hills?

Nope, no lake, all coast. It's possible there is a land bridge, but you can tell it's more water S of the eastern fish, and I think we need to be able to explore the other areas around our capital as well. When we hit BW I want to see that copper tile appear somewhere we've already explore relatively nearby.

It's better than a pasture on an empty grassland, or a winery on a blank plains. It's just random improvements in random places.

[Grimace]

Moved the scout SE, and saw this:



If you look carefully, you can see there's no land bridge to the east, so no swooping around that direction to defog the E side of the capital.

So my inclination is to head back N and then explore E and N of the capital. Thoughts?

[Grimace]

I forgot to end turn, so I logged in to do that, and while I was there decided to rename our civilization. We are now the "Ottean" empire.

[wetbandit]

Is that a Bismarck or Ottoman reference?