DaveV talks like a pirate, me hearties!

[DaveV]

I checked IMDB earlier and remember there being a reasonably long list of actors.

Codenames 14 spoiler:

I'm avoiding IMDB until this round is over, since one of my first thoughts on seeing Weaving was Hugo Weaving, the actor who played Agent Smith in the Matrix films, and Elrond in the Lord of the Rings films.

[DaveV]

So, naming scheme?

Revisiting this one to suggest pirate things: X marks the spot, Skull, Crossbones, Pieces of eight, etc.

Or, famous fictional pirates: Long John Silver, etc.

Or, famous real-life pirates: Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, etc.

[Brian Shanahan]

So, naming scheme?

Revisiting this one to suggest pirate things: X marks the spot, Skull, Crossbones, Pieces of eight, etc.

Or, famous fictional pirates: Long John Silver, etc.

Or, famous real-life pirates: Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, etc.

If we're going with real life pirates I demand Gráinne Mhaol.

Although interestingly enough when I learned the song in school, the second line of the second verse lead with "gruaigire brea" (fine hairy young fellows) rather than "oglaigh armtha" (armed young men/soldiers).

[Mardoc]

Arr, I be fine with either course, Cap'n. Set sail for the namin' lands!

Bigger question is whether my gut reaction that Lanun should head for the 2NE spot is correct or not. I'm afraid the timing isn't good for me to help out much - got to get PBEM 35 started and then I've got a no-internet vacation coming up shortly.

I will say, we debated a number of approaches in PBEM 16, and sandboxed several. What I found most surprising out of that: Fishing first/worker late worked best on both starts. Even though it means you don't have anything useful to build until it comes in (since a worker with only Exploration is pretty low value). Fishing unlocked a *lot* of good tiles, and a bunch of mediocre ones. One tech to unlock most of what a city needs, instead of two+ techs. Also...fishing first meant that tech rate picked up very quickly, which helps get the worker techs. Often you find yourself waiting on worker tech anyway with a FFH start.

It's always possible that this time the map pushes toward Agri first. But don't take that for granted!

[DaveV]

A quick sim leads me to think "Agriculture? We don't need no stinkin' Agriculture!"

I tried Fishing, Crafting->Mining, Ancient Chants->Mysticism->Message from the Deep, Agriculture->Calendar; finished them all with four cities by about turn 57, and that could be optimized considerably I think.

[Mardoc]

Depending on how well developed those cities were, that compares pretty well to my EitB 16 T57

[DaveV]

While I'm waiting for the first turn, here's a dotmap plan (asterisk is the capital, numbers are in order of settling, c for pirate cove):



City 9 will be a late game filler, although it's the only riverside city in the dotmap. I think I can live without Deruptus for a long time with all the happy resources. City 4 is also not a great city, and may be pushed down the list after some exploration.

I'm debating between the two potential coves by city 1. The one east of the clams is inefficient spacing, but is first ring.

[Mardoc]

Some comments:

4: I'd be inclined to push it significantly earlier in the found list. Maybe even first. Not because it's a great city, but because it should set up very quickly. The Deer forest and capital's lake can both be decent tiles unimproved, and it can have its coves built by capital workboats instead of needing to produce its own like the rest of the cities on the dotmap. It's connected to the trade network instantly through coast. I'm not sure it needs any worker turns at all until Mining at the earliest. True, later on its value declines, but for a first settler, immediate payback is more important. Especially when Imperialistic Expansive...

2: Non-coastal cities cannot build lighthouses, sea havens, or drydocks. That's quite a penalty. I'd be inclined to move it 1S. Side effect: city 9 becomes less filler-ish, although still not a first priority.

1: I would definitely go for the eastern cove. It's not at the minimum 3-tile range, true - but the way the sea is shaped, it actually is likely to work better than the one directly at the marble. You lose a potential cove 3SE of city 1, but gain the possibility of coves directly south of the marble island. Plus the value of first-ring.

Also, 1 is the opposite of 4: should be quite strong eventually, but I really don't like it as a first city. Requires a lot of tech to be useful, can't have workboats supplied, can't share any good tiles from the capital. It really should be founded post Agri, maybe post Calendar, with at least 2 workers in escort.

3: I don't like it, but mostly because the area is awkward. I can't see any room for improvement.

In terms of exploration - I would put a high priority on the areas around the northern sea, since those are cities that the capital can help set up with coves.

[Mardoc]

Hmm, on second thought, city 1 can be treated somewhat similarly to city 4 at first. It doesn't have quite as good tiles for it, but a bare floodplains is almost as good as a lake. Biggest challenge is the lack of ability to provide it with its workboats, but it's not as slow as I initially thought.

[Brian Shanahan]

3 can go one north onto the grassland hills, to grab the pig eventually. That city would grow like a weed. And you can still do the same cove dot map.

Alternatively if you like Mardoc's suggestion of dropping 2 south onto the plains hill (+1 hammer bonus) you could move 3 1SE onto the Silks, and then plop another city on the north coast between the pigs and the wheat, i.e. 1 E of the pigs and 1NW of the wheat. Though that mapping would be very cramped, so much so that without the Lanun sea prowess I wouldn't suggest this at all.

Heron throne in the capital?