[Spoiler] Suboptimal Goes on a Pseudorandom Walk

[suboptimal]

Turn 5




Warrior finds some more stuff to the south and east. This would present a scouting conundrum if anything to the south or east showed anything interesting on Settlervision. It doesn’t (all gray) so I’ll stick with the plan. Warrior will go W to the coast line (water directly W of its position) then shoot the gap between the bodies of water and circle back around to the capital.

Of course, that’s provided Archduke doesn’t ask for a reroll.

[suboptimal]

Looks like a re-roll, possibly (probably) without Archduke in the game. I wonder if he got hemmed in by city-states occupying most or all of the nearby mountain passes.

[suboptimal]

OK...took a little while but we're now underway. I'll probably get the save later tonight or sometime tomorrow depending on how the windows hold up. We're going to have two breaks (12th-16th and 21st to 24th). I'm thinking about jailbreaking the original game's EoT5 save using Cornflakes' instructions in order to post a world map and zoomed out start positions for lurker discussion, probably during the second break.

If this is not in line with etiquette even though it's an abandoned game (and we'd be well past Turn 5 by the time I were to do it) can someone give me a heads-up and I'll hold off on that until after this one ends.

[suboptimal]

Turn 1 - Again

Back in action...finally.




Hmmm...not a good food start. No luxury resources. Looks like those rolled “scarce” this game. I’ve got wheat piled up everywhere but it’s all floodplains. I like having the floodplains because I can get some free improvements when the river floods. There’s some tundra down to the southwest and the river appears to form a coastal delta in the northwest (note the way the fog is drawn 3NW of the warrior. Settlervision:




What’s odd here is that the volcano shows up but the floodplains don’t register as flooding tiles.

This situation calls for a settler move. Having 2 tiles in the first ring is necessary but I’d also like to have the city on higher ground. SE and settle leaves me no 2 tiles, making city growth particularly slow. I could settle 1 NW in the floodplains and cross my fingers. Alternatively I move 2NW this turn, mount the hill the next turn and settle there. Everyone else has settled in place. What to do? I move the warrior. NW-W to see if anything interesting is up that way. Nope, though I confirm the river delta and the coast directly west.

No guts, no glory.

where , , and




The weirdness with the floodplains continues. I should have gotten an era point for settling on or adjacent to floodplains but no such luck. I’ll ascribe this to WorldBuilder shenanigans. We’ll see if this area floods later on. I could use a good flood to increase the food availability here.

City starts a warrior and works the sheep. The existing warrior will scout around the capital to the north. Second warrior out will scout east while the city builds a settler.

For techs I’ll go Animal Husbandry → Mining → Bronze Working to Eureka and see how things progress. Finding some horses nearby will help with the food situation and a pasture would get a little more production out of those sheep.

I also realize, after settling, that I can no longer put another city along this river except for the tile north of the coastal delta. At least that’ll make for a compact start.

[suboptimal]

Turn 2

Warrior crosses the river. I’m assuming I’m in the southwest corner of whatever it is we’ve started on. Check Settlervision to see if by some chance the floodplains may flood and nope...

The Great People available:




James of St. George could be useful, as could Marcus Licinus Crassus. Not overwhelmed by Euclid or Boudica. Gaius Duilius could be very interesting if naval power becomes important.

[suboptimal]

Turn 3

In thinking about my start some more I think I might be inclined to go with a promoted Reyna for the first two governor promotions. With the number of surrounding features and the fact that the capital will have a tough time going past 4 population (no amenities and not a lot of food unless I go farm happy) her Forestry Management promotion could result in significant gold. I’d try to get an early Government Plaza to get the third governor promotion and grab Magnus. With the low-food situation an early Ancestral Hall might be the way to go as well. Of course, would I have the production for that?

Warrior tops the hill to the NE and we have found our first (and so far only) luxury resource:




The desert hill 3NW is fresh water. I’ll go into the amber tile next turn to get a view to the NE. That freshwater hill location to the NW of LinCon is not looking like a good spot – probably two first ring desert tiles up there and not much else.

[suboptimal]

In the patch discussion I linked to in the tech thread there is a post that seems to confirm that WorldBuilder rivers don't flood correctly. My capital could indeed be safe in its current position....

[suboptimal]

Turn 4

Warrior moves to amber and finds….




The desert hill 2N of the warrior and the tiles E and W of that are along a river which is just visible in the fog. The desert hill W of the forest is coastal. I’ll most likely move NW-NE to take advantage of the hills for visibility.

[suboptimal]

Turn 5

Warrior moves NW:




Neither of those plains floodplains are shown as being subject to flooding. Looks like all river flooding is borked. Seems like one entire category of disaster has been removed from the game. For better or for worse, though, that’s probably where city #2 is going.

Turn ends with the barbarian sounder.

[suboptimal]

Turn 6




That spear would be worth 12, 50, an inspiration and an era point but take 3-4 turns (plus stopping to heal) to kill it. Think I’ll go to the jungle hill to the east to see what I can see, then go to the forest E of the camp and attack from there. The new warrior out of Linear Congruential will complete and head E/SE to find the volcano and defog east of the capital while I build a settler.

Woden and Jester both gained a population this turn.