[SPOILERS] Rusten enters uncharted waters

[Rusten]

Indeed. Those chess games were great prep Darrell. 
Counting on you to break this monologue every so often (that goes for you too naufragar!). 

Players I'd be happy to see start next to me:
Borsche: Suryavarman [EXP/CRE] of Persia
GeneralKillCavalry: Darius [FIN/ORG] of Aztecs
BaII: Mehmed [EXP/ORG] of Khmer
Adler: Julius Caesar [IMP/ORG] of Sumeria
Dark Savant: Bismark [EXP/IND] of Mali
Pindicator: Pacal [EXP/FIN] of Arabia
Elkad: Churchill [CHM/PRO] of Native America
2MetraNinja: Mao [EXP/PRO] of Ethiopia

Players I absolutely don't want next to me:
BeardBeard: Charlemagne [PRO/IMP] of HRE (Too unpredictable, but could go both ways)
superdeath: Boudicca [AGG/CHM] of America (Will ruin his own and neighbour's game)
Gavagai: Stalin [AGG/IND] of Germany
Commodore: Wang Kon [FIN/PRO] of Mongolia

Players I'd prefer to avoid:
Krill: Hannibal [FIN/CHM] of England
Old Harry + Hitru: Victoria [FIN/IMP] of Inca
TBW: Shaka [EXP/AGG] of Rome

Those are pretty good odds. I'm OK with more than half the field. The cynic in me expects all 4 in the bad column. Commodore would be the worst of them all. He's not only going to want to use his keshiks, but he's going to want to kill me before I get my strength 8 pike too.

And to end things I will introduce you to John Butler. Friend of mine suggested it to me recently and I'm hooked.

[Rusten]

Not only is that another 1st ring food tile, but it's also another hunting resource. Looks like I can fit in the wheel before the settler now and road towards the city spot to speed up settling date by 2-3 turns and also get a trade network going for +2 commerce. Excellent! 
Roads being so helpful means 2 workers before 1st settler is definitely better.

Now it's time to check how early I can get a granary there. The sooner the better honestly given those tiles. Pre-sim guess: T35
What have I done to deserve two starting capitals?

[naufragar]

What have I done to deserve two starting capitals?

Shame you'll have to wait until Astro for a third city.

[Rusten]

What have I done to deserve two starting capitals?

Shame you'll have to wait until Astro for a third city.

*Takes another look at the landmass*
You're not joking are you?!

[Rusten]

Roads being so helpful means 2 workers before 1st settler is definitely better.

You know what they say about assuming...  

I was about to talk about the wonders of a 3 workers before settler opening, but then I realized there was no way that could be good and hit the reset button. In short, my 2-worker opening couldn't road towards the city in time and only settled one turn faster than a 3-worker opening which made the former terrible and had me considering triple worker. Fortunately I came to my senses and ran a 1-worker into settler build and it performed much better. It's a little annoying to take so long to get from the capital to the city site, but at least I have a work boat waiting there for me for instant coastal fish. It's settled T26 (2 and 3 worker openings T30 and 31 respectively). No way more worker turns can catch up with 5 more turns of coastal fish with a 2-hammer center, and I still have time to improve the sheep before the city reaches size 2.

The plan does involve whipping my capital twice (3 --> 2 [work boat with overflow] --> 1 [remaining ~26 hammers on settler]), but the unhappiness is of no concern that early. I don't need to make my decision until after the sheep has a pasture, but I'd be surprised if it's beaten. My guesstimate on granaries was fairly accurate -- looks like around T37. As you might've guessed getting these early granaries means I'm willing to let the SH go. This start is so good that I'd rather get my civ flying. It shouldn't take too long to reach the later religions anyway. If I go monotheism before writing that should be early enough for Judaism. A single temple isn't fast enough for the theocracy bulb I think, but I can add in some scientist turns and gamble. If I lose I at least get philosophy (pacifism) or an academy instead.

Early masonry (for monotheism) also opens up a potential Great Lighthouse. Looks like most of my cities will be coastal.

[Rusten]

I did say not to expect reports every turn, but this was another meaningful one.
Scout discovered gold+crab, and both will probably be in the first ring, which is another no to Stonehenge.



Not entirely sure I will settle this 3rd -- might have to go north first, but it will be a good city even if nothing else is discovered. Good output and +1 happiness for empire.
I also want to add that I love the way my area looks -- especially the snowy forests. Sadly they won't last, but I'll enjoy them while I can. I'd love to find deer or furs so that I can justify keeping some around to cheer me up. Having peaks and ice everywhere makes me feel right at home as a Norwegian -- I love the winter season. Let's just hope Krill remembered to turn off the volcano event or I'll be in big trouble.

The north looks to widen, thankfully, so it should hold either multiple cities or a rival civ.



Nothing particularly interesting to note in the demographics screen other than the rival land average surprisingly being lower than mine. There are a lot of coastal capitals so GLH will be contested I'm sure. Another benefit of having it this game is that with so many players there's a better chance someone will actually accept open borders. It's worth it for domestic routes alone though.

[Rusten]

Change of plans, The Oracle is back on! 



Given what's scouted so far there's a reasonable chance I'm on an island of my own. And even if that's not the case my starting area looks very easily defensible. I may not even need monotheism for religion, I can easily fit in polytheism after pottery for a first attempt. From that point on it's a measly 75 beakers to complete PH, and I was able to construct a fairly early Oracle without hampering my expansion too much. It's entirely possible someone will build it before me, but it wouldn't ruin my game at that point.
The tech of choice would be MC to secure The Colossus for myself -- it should be real good here. From there on the prophet (GPP from Oracle+temple) can bulb theocracy and secure religious wonders.

If I'm left in peace and can secure these goals then my economic game is secured, but it won't be easy in a 16-player game.

[Rusten]

At the risk of going full Krill I don't understand why people take so long for the first turns. It shouldn't be difficult to either:
a) Commit 3 minutes of your morning or evening to log in and move your scout
OR
b) Ask a lurker to move the scout if you know you're away for a full day.

Shame on you Borsche.

- - - - - - - -

As expected my scout will come to a dead-end next turn.




I've come to the realization that it's better to settle 1N of the PH to reduce overlap with the southern city. This is especially true if the northern area holds no seafood. 1N of PH will pick up 2 more land tiles long term, but if there is seafood in the fog I'll have no choice but to settle PH to give room for a filler city there later. I'm fine with either scenario.

Amusingly it might even yield more production short term as well. For starters it gets settled 1T sooner, but more importantly the PH center doesn't really contribute much to expansion as the city is just growing on food while making warriors and whipping granary/settler when it reaches size 4. The 2-hammer center is way more important for the first city of the game than the second. The extra warrior from settling on the PH is largely irrelevant as there's nothing to fogbust -- neither enemy nor barbarians.

[Rusten]

It appears TBS was in a generous mood allocating at least one extra food resource. Forested plains corn is not a B&S regular -- thanks!




The ocean fish down south changes things a bit, there's only 1 place to settle it and it makes everything 2nd ring. Coupled with the newly discovered grain I'm back on the plains hill train. I hope to found Hinduism in my 2nd city (PH) and claim the crab and gold for the southernmost city that way. That would speed up its development a lot. I'll need to make a difficult decision on earlier pottery vs. earlier Hinduism at some point, but I know for a fact that the starting techs are hunting-bw-fishing-wheel. Difficult if the religion is still available after the wheel that is. Hindu failure is likely followed by a beeline to monotheism.

Settling on PH makes room for a city picking up corn later (and probably loan sheep from capital to grow quicker). It's not the greatest, but it can draft. Besides, I'm hoping to construct at least one of the GLH or Colossus, which makes it worth settling. With the corn added by hand I'm not expecting anything else in the fog there.




Capital culture reveals another plains hill sheep (meh) and grassland pigs () on what I can only assume is a different landmass. Another strong case for early sailing. I don't think early writing is important here at all. I'll be getting my GPP from other sources too so I'm free to pursue a religion. I'd be quite happy to be on my own island honestly, which is looking all the more likely every turn. Building is fun -- leave the blood for Commodore and the like.

P.S. Another plus of settling PH over non-PH is that the extra hammer is now more useful again. It can be put into a scouting work boat for the eastern island/continent.

[Rusten]

More specifically, whip 3 --> 2 (work boat into granary and regrow) --> whip 3 --> 2 (finish granary). Should outperform a 4 --> 2 whip quite handily now that I have a useful unit to overflow with and effectively putting hammers into a granary before it's available in the tech tree. This would not be possible with a 60-H granary -- thanks Krill!
I need to remember that happiness is a mechanic ( ), but with the UB happiness I should be fine stacking an extra unhappy citizen. The city will still be happy size 3 (fish+sheep+grass mine) and whenever it reaches size 4 it can start on a settler/worker nullifying the unhappy citizen --> 2-pop whip --> repeat.

Overflowing 21 hammers from the work boat and completing the granary with a chop+grass mine is another option, but from memory my workers are very busy already. Something to consider anyway. The only thing I know for sure is that information on that landmass is very important so a scouting work boat will be made. Need to know if it holds another civ or if it's just a small island. A work boat (with expansive boost even) is a small price to pay.

Update: One whip into chop looks real good. Granary can finish eot 39 with just 1 whip unhappiness and 1T of hammers into settler or worker already.




Now that's an early game powerhouse, and it's not even my starting capital. Will be a little slower to city #4, but overall it should speed up the early game significantly. Capital gets granary a little later as it favours a settler for what is likely a bronze settle.