Joey, here is the rough scouting plan for the next 15 turns. Some of it is known, most of it isn't.
Cavendish needs to be on the plains hill by T37, so aiming to get him there by T35 gives us some safety in terms of barbs and healing. Gilbert has a set path to start with, because there is no where else for him to scout.
The aim is to use the scouts as efficiently as possible to uncover what terrain we have nearby and then send Gilbert off to the north. I see no reason to not scout the coast with a view to working out a dot map: it is wasteful to have to scout twice. Eyeballing this screenshot, we have enough turns to do so with Cavendish, before he has to turn around, scout south and then eastward along the FoW. We can work out how far west we have to send Gilbert before he turns north in the next 5 turns.
FWIW, I don't see what issue you have with sending Cavendish as far west as I have. One of these two scouts had to be on that plains hill around T35, so we had to send either scout on a loop large enough that it didn't spend turns idle. That would be wasteful. If we had sent Cavendish straight north, then we would have gotten no scouting information from Gilbert and that would be wasteful. As it is, we still have the option to choose which scout we want to return and guard the workers roading to the city 2 site: TBH, if Gilbert does not get to G2, I would rather continue exploring deep with Cavendish as that is much safer and can give us significantly more information in for the same investment of a single scout.
If the western coastline flairs back out to the west (I doubt, this would be an absurd mega-continent on a snaky setting if that is the case), then we can reconsider. IMO, the coastline just heads north and we need to know if that is a dead end or there is someone up there. But this brings up a really important question:
What are we scouting for? What information are we trying to ascertain from the map? Right now I am no longer interested in the wider dotmap, I want to know who our neighbours are, and what land routes there are available for players to approach us. Do you disagree with this approach Joey? Is there something different you think we should be trying to find?
(October 11th, 2019, 22:41)Krill Wrote: Hmmm, shall we name the boat after you?
I'll take it!
I haven't used it since, but back in my school days, I passed a boating license test and can legally drive a boat up to 64ft. in length for non-commercial purposes, at least in U.S. waters. Weirdly, it never expires.
You need a license to drive a boat in the US? You don't in the UK (at least, don't if in coastal waters, and it's private use, obviously there are laws to follow, but no license needed). Yachting/sailing license, or is it for power boats?
BTW, keep on reminding me about the galley name. We might get one out around T60 from the rough micro I've figured out (anlso, intercontinental trade routes by that point seem nice in a push to Currency).
(October 11th, 2019, 22:41)Krill Wrote: Hmmm, shall we name the boat after you?
I'll take it!
I haven't used it since, but back in my school days, I passed a boating license test and can legally drive a boat up to 64ft. in length for non-commercial purposes, at least in U.S. waters. Weirdly, it never expires.
You need a license to drive a boat in the US? You don't in the UK (at least, don't if in coastal waters, and it's private use, obviously there are laws to follow, but no license needed). Yachting/sailing license, or is it for power boats?
BTW, keep on reminding me about the galley name. We might get one out around T60 from the rough micro I've figured out (anlso, intercontinental trade routes by that point seem nice in a push to Currency).
Power boats.
Personal sailboats do not need licenses. I'm not sure if massive sailboats like working replicas of age-of-sail ships inherently need licenses to operate, but most of those fall under commercial use, which is another license system entirely.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Turns out the scout information is already out of date, but the point of that post holds.
We have stone, which helps with...city walls and Oxford. It also looks like the tiles 3N, 3N1E are not hills, so we probably spend a turn or two scouting a bit more slowly. The lion is no trouble so long as we go north, so I'm thinking NW - NE next turn, and then we might move a little bit east to not get bogged down in forests.
We are also one of the 6 player still at size 2, everyone else is at size 3 now. As expected with so many EXP leaders, and us behind the growth curve with the "work boat with no 3 hammer tile" penalty/whipped worker. Still praying a forest grows SW of the capital.
We have to send a scout to find where he is, because we are currently leaving copper hook up until well after T60. He could reach IW shortly after that (T70) by if he has good commerce. We should be able to reach HBR by the time he can reach IW though, if we need to. Horse should be revealed T40. We need to know how he would try to attack us (if he goes that way).
Right now I think we send Cavendish north, and circle around with Gilbert, and us Gilbert to cover to roading workers on T37. I'm also thinking that we need to get the capital off a whip cycle and onto hills as fast as reasonably possible in case we have to convert to a military build up. FWIW we finish the second settler whip T47, I was thinking whip out two workers before a final settler whip, after that city 2 can pick up the settler whips (as an aside, I think we need to also use overflow to finish the fish work boat to save the whip unhappy in city 2, as city 2 is limited by the happy cap. Not whipping a work boat at city 2 would give us one extra whip into a bigger item such as a further settler). We want all 6 hills mined and we need a lighthouse but we have the happy to sustain size 9 with the ivory and silver. We'll whip 5 items starting from T39, so from T68 we will be able to maintain size 7 with the remaining whip unhappy.
Old Harry + Hitru: Victoria [FIN/IMP](32nd pick) of Inca (1st pick)
First pick sets the whole tone for a snake pick IMO. Inca are one such choice that will always exist in an anceint era game. They are designed to be picked first and to "Just work" with any none creative leader. Doesn't pair well with an early game leader, it really needs to be paired with something that gives a boost to late game economy otherwise most players crash the economy and die to HA.
Oh look, they are one of five players that start with Myst and they got to pick Vicky so they can play catch up on expansion. They have a straight shot at Buddhism if they have a grain resource and only BeardBeard would contest (GCK wants to go for Monotheism so would not bother rushing Polytheism, Rusten won't even consider early religion, Pindicator doesn't want the buildings on Meditation as he has Madrassa). So despite being first pick, OH and Hitru got a 45 hammer granary and a shot at an early religion. And they also got the same leader they used in PB18 to tie the game despite that leader having extra stuff compared to that game. Jesus I hope they get bad neighbours this game.
Cheap granaries that pop borders and cheap settlers scaling into FIN. The weaknesses are no happy and no unit bonuses. I've explained why the cheaper granaries aren't the same as true PRO granaries in Rustens pick evaluation, but still: no worries about border pops. I reckon they go for Buddhism, because they don't have to worry then. Easy shrine, just put third or fourth city on the duty to pop the GP and then use another city to play catch up and generate a GS for a golden age later. Later on cheap Customs Houses should help to make triple promo boats without civics, but the reality is Customs Houses don't actually matter unless you go for 4 promo boats.
Nah, religion run into easy GP game and opportunistic island strikes, plan for double Astro bulb for major expansion because there will be no difficulties in the GP game and FIN should carry them to that point easily for tech, plus FIN coast means they will be pushing for coastal cities anyway.
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The above was written as the game started. After 24 turns, OH and Hitru have not landed religion, no one has founded any so far. They are playing chicken. The only thing worse than these guys (or Rusten) getting an early religion, is if they get an early religion without developmental cost IMO.
(September 16th, 2019, 00:21)GermanJoey Wrote: - TBW: fairly solid all-around. Tends to like slower leaders... is never a front-runner out of the gate, but always seems to do well. Probably the least whiny/tilty badgame player.
He does seem like he has an eye for opportunistic warfare. But he absolutely will not torpedo his chances of winning just to take you out, which BB would happily do
