picklepikkl embarks on the Fool's Journey

[Gavagai]

Well, my first advice is that I don't like very much your idea for the second city spot. It adds one 4-food resource in the first ring and one 4-food resource in the second ring. This last one is a crab which requires a work boat.
By contrast, consider a spot 1-1-4 from the capital. It adds 6-food and 4-food resources in the first ring, another 4-food resource after capital pops borders and also has copper and ivory in the second ring. Also, it will have two forests immediately available, in contrast to 0 for 7-7-7 spot. Early game is about getting as much added value from each new unit of population as possible, so you want each new city to add the highest number of powerful tiles.

I understand that you want copper ASAP but it isn't as much a priority as it seems. Of all your rivals only Jowy may rush you and I think he is now trying to reinvent himself as a builder. Also, you typically want to have 3rd city soon after second and demos will allow you sniff out rush very early. So, you should have flexibility to react in time. I think you will be safe to take copper with your third city. And for taking copper 9-9-6-6 from capital seems to be a stronger spot.

DISCLAIMER: I don't have a lot of experience at playing small maps and micro isn't my strongest suit. So, don't take my advice as a gospel - at least until you are at war

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Well, my first advice is that I don't like very much your idea for the second city spot. It adds one 4-food resource in the first ring and one 4-food resource in the second ring. This last one is a crab which requires a work boat.
By contrast, consider a spot 1-1-4 from the capital. It adds 6-food and 4-food resources in the first ring, another 4-food resource after capital pops borders and also has copper and ivory in the second ring. Also, it will have two forests immediately available, in contrast to 0 for 7-7-7 spot. Early game is about getting as much added value from each new unit of population as possible, so you want each new city to add the highest number of powerful tiles.

I understand that you want copper ASAP but it isn't as much a priority as it seems. Of all your rivals only Jowy may rush you and I think he is now trying to reinvent himself as a builder. Also, you typically want to have 3rd city soon after second and demos will allow you sniff out rush very early. So, you should have flexibility to react in time. I think you will be safe to take copper with your third city. And for taking copper 9-9-6-6 from capital seems to be a stronger spot.

DISCLAIMER: I don't have a lot of experience at playing small maps and micro isn't my strongest suit. So, don't take my advice as a gospel - at least until you are at war

Be advised barbs off too Gavagi, and immortal difficulty which are rather different to standard games if that changes anything!

[picklepikkl]

Ah, that was the spot I was considering for City #3. I see your point; it definitely has more good tiles to work, and higher food (3 six-yield tiles once capital borders expand rather than 2). Now that I think about it, I was overvaluing the ability to share food with the capital and the fact that the trade network connection is easier due to the river. The extra flood plains for FIN cottages is also very nice; you're probably right that I can hold off on connecting copper for now (and take advantage of the opportunity to pump out cheaper MP units).

Speaking of which, I really should build a warrior... ever, since I'm pretty sure from Soldiers increases that my opponents have. My mind is giving me paranoid visions of moving my settler straight into the jaws of death, despite how unlikely I know it is.

[picklepikkl]

OK, the micro still works out to have a worker in place to improve the first ring the second The Magician is founded. It's a shame AH is already researching -- could have swapped in The Wheel instead, since we want to improve the wheat before the cows. Oh well! I think sure nobody's researched AH yet, and maybe we'll meet someone for known tech bonuses on Wheel. I also don't think it makes a huge difference; worker B will be out of position to make useful roads (will probably go put chops into either Settler #2 or Worker C while The Fool grows a bit in preparation for a 2-pop whip), and Amduscias has better things to do in improving The Magician's resources. That's a city we'll be whipping a lot; a six food, two four-foods, and a three-food all in first ring!

[picklepikkl]

This has nothing to do with the game situation; just a comment in another thread that I found germane. (Note that while the quote itself is not a spoiler, the thread it links to is from a spoiled-lurker thread for PB27).

If the ability to grasp bigger civ concepts and dynamics is also there (e.g. in the early game: if you play out ten different sandbox openings until T40 can you actually recognize, which one of your openings is the best?).

I feel this . This is why I've been spending a lot of my travel downtime reading threads from other games: you need context to build good valuation in strategy games, and as a rank newbie I need all the context I can get.

[picklepikkl]

This turn's exploration yielded a lot of interesting discoveries that I'm going to use to draw conclusions about the map, so hold on to your hats!

First order of business: we found the Promised Land.






Well... that's obviously highly symmetrical. And incredibly desirable. Sadly, I am the person in this game with the least ability to stretch for this early. The obvious holy grail is "found on the marble for the BFC from a commerce-spammer wet dream," but I feel like there's a case to be made for founding on the jungle hill SE/NW of the FP rice (the rice is a bit of asymmetry that benefits us, since we're coming from the southeast -- whoever's in the NW is similarly advantaged). Also, seeing the incense tiles twigged something in me: there are five Calendar luxuries, and I had a lot of one of them at my start. I bet everyone has a monopoly on one, and the world's supply of incense is right here.

Meanwhile, in the east:




I counted Y-axis tiles and the gems are 9 away from my capital, which seems pretty far. I see two possibilities: either there are sets of gems like this halfway between each start along the "sides" of the square (in which case capitals are farther from each other than I'd guessed previously), or there's a skew wherein each gem-pair is closer to one of the starts than the other such that everyone has gems that are "theirs" and another set that's more of a reach (in which case I should be knocking on someone's door any second now). The possibility that the gems are distributed in some sort of haphazard fashion is, of course, absurd and unworthy of serious consideration. The spot I like best here is the grassland in between the western gems and the pigs, but that seems like begging your neighbor to park units on the three hills and ruin your day.

Also, like the Calendar deductions earlier, I think this establishes the metals distribution: everyone has frozen gold in their "corner," there's silver in the Holy Land, and gems between the players. A fair and equitable split doesn't seem likely for the latter two; I particularly appreciate the map design (even while I dislike the likely geopolitical consequences) that makes it impossible for two cities to be founded with first-ring gems. You could both found second-ring to share them (e.g. the plains hill next to sheep and pigs on my side, the forest grassland near the river mouth in the north), but that incentivizes whoever founds second to defect and settle up on the other person. Really nice way of pushing us into conflict, REM!

(Also back home I started on a Settler and moved my two workers into position to chop, but that isn't nearly as interesting as everything else)

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Thank you for the kind comments on the map. I will not comment in case I give anything away, although I agree re the rice and did plan to add another 2 in on the other corners... At least it is only +2 food not +3 food like corn/wheat. Also I see another mistake on the map now from what I intended, see if you can work it out when you get full vision (this one is more obvious, but less important probably)

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Have you spotted any stone yet?

[picklepikkl]

I have not spotted stone; my current guess is that it's on offshore islands to create outer strength-inner strength tension. [EDIT: Yeah, I mentioned that before, though my guess was at least half-wrong. Are you telling me you don't remember what I've been saying? I thought you loved me!]

By the way, visible in the screenshots is the name of my second worker, Buer. Let's talk about Buer!



Buer is a wacky-looking dude, but knows all sorts of things! His particular specialties are moral philosophy (though why you'd go to a demon for instruction on moral philosophy, I couldn't say), logic, and botany! Given that this worker is currently chopping and will soon afterwards farm, that last seems particularly handy.

(He's also the subject of some really great discussion on tumblr)

[picklepikkl]

Hunh, greenline posted in his thread, which usually means he's played a turn, but the tracker says he's still got it. I wonder what happened -- did someone rush him and he's thinking about it? It's not even turn 20!