EitB Microplan Potluck! Get feedback on your micro skills

[Qgqqqqq]

There have been a lot of requests for help of this sort, so I thought I'd start something like this off to give us a no-spoiler environment to critique and improve one another's micro.

Here's the idea: I provide a turn 0 save file. You play around with it. Decide on your best plan for t0-30 (quick speed), and post it here. Then, read other peoples' plans and get feedback on yours! Also, I may do a little bit of "judging", and reserve the right to determine a "winner", but that's not the important part.

Here, I suggest playing to t50 quick speed (or t75 if you want to, but please report t50), as I think that's enough to start seeing the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.

Details:

You are Valledia the Evan of the Amurites!


I chose her because she's all-but a blank slate, both as a leader and as a civ, so you can take her wherever you want. Ingenuity also helps offset event gold and the like.

You are playing in a 5-player PBEM on RB! The map has been randomly rolled, but the start has been altered to about the level that most MP maps are on, with an eye to opening up different strategies. You start on a continent all by yourself, but the game is on Monarch, and some lairs have been scrubbed, so you shouldn't be overwhelmed by barbs. AI opponents are Cassiel and Auric, so there will be no competition for religions, should you choose to focus on them. Game speed is quick. Here's your start:


Copper has been labelled in the final save.

Figure out a plan for the first 51 turns (t0-50). Then post it here. There are no particular requirements for the format of your plan, except that it should include an empire overview shot from t50. But here are some further suggestions:

• Describe the reasoning behind your choices.
  
• In addition to your t50 screenshot, include screenshots from t10, t20, t30, and t40. More screenshots are (almost) better, of course.
  
• Provide an ordered list of the techs you research.
  
• Provide an ordered list of what things you build in each of your cities.
  
• Note turns on which you finish builds and on which your cities grow.
  
• Provide a link to a google spreadsheet showing detailed instructions for reproducing your plan.
  

I suggest not changing the names of your cities so that we all have the same city names.

Once you've played around with the sandbox and made plans, you should be able to better comprehend other players' plans. Take some time to see what other players chose to do. Any comments you have on other players' plans are highly welcome. You are free to look at other players' plans before posting your own; I just think you will get more out of it if you look at it yourself first. If you go back to revise your plan after seeing other players' plans, even better! However, please mention when reporting if you've read some other plans already.

I am planning to read and provide some feedback on every plan that someone posts. I'm not yet sure what schedule to do this on (or even if anyone will take me up on it!), but I was thinking I would give other people a few days to get started before chiming in myself next week.

My thinking is that this would be a really useful exercise for some of our newer members, and would also be a fun diversion for those of us who've done it many times already. I hope you give it a shot!

>> DOWNLOAD THE SAVE <<

FAQ

Q: Should I care about the AIs?
A: Treat it as a sandbox for a game against human players. You should not be interacting with the AIs.

Q: How are the rules for this different from a normal game?
A: You have full map knowledge. You get as many tries as you want. The goal is to come up with a plan from t0 through t50 that would be good in a PBEM where, unlike usual, you know the map.

Q: Should I use spoiler tags for my results?
A: Sure, that seems like a good idea.

Q: Do I need to settle in place?
A: No.

More detailed settings:

In case it's not clear, this is modelled extensively on SevenSpirit's excellent BTS version, and full credit goes to him.

[Hesmyrr]

So you will be the one doing the judging, correct? Use of the quotes made me confused momentarily.

Edit: I understand, just wanted to confirm there was no involvement of SevenSpirits. Thank you for the quick response.

[Qgqqqqq]

Honestly, the point of it isn't judging. If there ends up being a formal "winner", then sure, I'll award it. But it's more about what the community discussion over results then winning or losing.

Forgot to mention, the mod is EitB v11.1.

[DaveV]

Good idea, please take the following as constructive criticism. Turn 50 seems a little early for the end date; I think turn 75 would be a more representative basis for comparison. Also, the Guardian could potentially be a real obstacle in the pictured map.

I think it's worth emphasizing that spoiler tags should be used, to avoid influencing other players.

[Qgqqqqq]

Well, I was going for equivalency. Whilst it's been a while since that game, I felt the production output/level reached at t30 was closer to t50 in EitB. My initial plan was actually to go to t75, but I changed after reading 7's first post, and wanting to lower the bar for taking part. Also the fact that there is generally human-human conflict/interference during that time period, so the exercise begins to lose value.

Perhaps have two separate metrics, comparing at both dates for those who go all the way, and just at t50 for those inclined to stop there?


As to the guardians, the AIs are both on another continent, so the only thing that triggers them would be the player themselves. I didn't edit them in, but left them as I thought it was an appropriate PvE thing to be a part of this.


Another thing I forgot to mention:

This is a map and exercise you can repeat many times, as Seven said. It's objective is, after all, to help you improve your own micro ability. However, this is FFH, and huts/lairs/events have been left on, so these can potentially effect the game significantly. I would ask that, in the spirit of FFH, you simply take them as they come, and not try to repeat or reload to get better results from them, but rather approach them with the same attitude if this was an actual PBEM - for example, never sending settlers outside of borders until they can be covered by warriors from animal attacks, and having units ready to protect all your improvements/cities from barbs at all times.

[SevenSpirits]

However, this is FFH, and huts/lairs/events have been left on, so these can potentially effect the game significantly. I would ask that, in the spirit of FFH, you simply take them as they come, and not try to repeat or reload to get better results from them, but rather approach them with the same attitude if this was an actual PBEM - for example, never sending settlers outside of borders until they can be covered by warriors from animal attacks, and having units ready to protect all your improvements/cities from barbs at all times.

My recommendation would be to take this not as a pbem game itself, but as coming up with a plan for what to do in a pbem game. If your plan relies on specific luck from map features or barbarians it's not a very good plan. Rather, I would hope that the plan is strong in the majority of cases, and it's just a minor bonus if the plan also considers edge cases of extreme luck. I do realize this is more awkward in EitB/FFH compared to BTS, but it still seems more useful to me to evaluate plans rather than outcomes.

Of course, it's your challenge. And I am far from knowledgeable about EitB/FFH.

[Qgqqqqq]

I think what you're saying there matches with what I was trying to say. The issue is I'm kinda talking about two seperate things:

1. Barbs/animals, and reacting to their influence (hence, the examples given above - be prepared for them, so they're left on)
2. Huts/Events/Lairs, and what effects they have (don't plan around their effects, don't rig things for them)

In hindsight, it might be a better decision to just switch off huts/events/lairs, especially seeing as there's a dearth of huts about the player.

[SevenSpirits]

I think what you're saying there matches with what I was trying to say. The issue is I'm kinda talking about two seperate things:

1. Barbs/animals, and reacting to their influence (hence, the examples given above - be prepared for them, so they're left on)
2. Huts/Events/Lairs, and what effects they have (don't plan around their effects, don't rig things for them)

In hindsight, it might be a better decision to just switch off huts/events/lairs, especially seeing as there's a dearth of huts about the player.

Maybe I misunderstood you then. I was specifically looking at your recommendation regarding lairs etc to "take things as they come" whereas I would say to "take things as they will come in a typical case".

[DaveV]

In hindsight, it might be a better decision to just switch off huts/events/lairs, especially seeing as there's a dearth of huts about the player.

Definitely. It becomes "who can pop the best game-breaking goodie from lairs" rather than "who can come up with the best micro plan."

I checked back to the original thread, and I guess EitB turn 50 probably is a good comparison to BtS turn 30. I thought the original challenge had a longer time period.

[DaveV]

Here's my effort:

I played this like a long blitz session: no reloads, no deep strategic evaluation. Here's where I am at EoT 50:




I rotated the map by 90 degrees because I've settled in a north-south pattern. Resource bubbles are blocking some information: the capital is size 7, and the warrior at Udenerat will complete in three more turns. Each city has a garrison of two warriors; I haven't built any buildings. A pair of workers has just completed a chop/farm in the east north right side of the screen between the cows and pigs.

Hut results: two gold, one map. I also got two constellation events for gold. I didn't explore any lairs.

I decided to move because the starting position was very low on food; the new capital picked up the grass cows and floodplains. The highlighted settler group was headed to the river grassland tile to the left of the corn. Looking at it as I do this writeup, the jungle between the bananas and corn is probably better, and I could have had them sitting on that tile instead of where they are.

Things I could have done better: the second city is weak sauce. Better third city, as mentioned above.