[SPOILER] Nobody's Business But The Turks

[superjm]

---RESTART STARTS HERE---

And here we go again.






More or less the same start but with some key differences. The Rice tile is now a Wheat tile which is pretty nice as it's a free one extra hammer over the previous start, though the grassland gems are now a desert gold instead. All of the plains hills tiles are forested but there is also one less forest if I settle in the same spot as before. Again, I'm really hesitant to move away from my food T0 but the idea of moving the settler onto that unforested plains hill 2SE for a better view and possibly a better settle location is tempting, especially as it would save a chop on the previously decided settle spot. Naturally, as before, I have zero incentive to settle in place.

In any case, if I do end up settling on the same spot then the Pottery first plan looks even better than it did before compared to Mining->BW.

[Krill]

Just as I start night shifts...

When will map makers realize to make all starts 2 hammers.

Do you have any idea we here in the world you are? Might be north of the Himalayas, so you should have targets in any direction.

[Krill]

My view is that the desert gold is a down grade, is is essentially a worthless tile for a capital. The wheat is again of no greater use than the rice once the granary is up, except to make it a bit easier to build units during growth. Bit of value, but nothing drastic.

If I were playing in this game, I would give serious thought to just wandering away from this start and warrior rushing someone. 2SE is a legit choice, and if other players have starts like this you could pull off a warrior first play.

[Krill]

Well, strictly speaking I would love 1SE then evaluate, but NW is bounded by forests so I wouldn't move there. 1SE and then consider if 2SE is what your u want to do.

[superjm]

I was thinking earlier about where on the world map this actually was but I wasn't getting anything concrete. Somewhere on the Asian mainland is about the best I could figure given the mountains and the large inland body of water but I can't be sure.

Also remember that all capitals start with a Archer on enforced fortify so any early rush is gonna have to take that into account. Not sure how many warriors you'd need on average to dislodge a fortified Archer in a city on a hill but it can't be an insignificant amount.

[Krill]

I thought the archer rule wasn't chosen? Must have missed that.

Doesn't mean moving is wrong though, just means cramming your capital in someone's face means you would probably choke each other.

[superjm]

Ultimately decided to do the settler move to the plains hill 2SE. Wasting a turn doubling back to the original spot would suck but I think having more information before committing to the capital is desirable, given this second chance to do so.




First settler move reveals another desert hill, so the rest of the fog in that direction is certainly flat grassland. With more river perhaps? Let's see




I'm not particularly enthusiastic about what I see here.

Why are there so many desert hills? Why does there appear to be even more desert in the tiles just beyond these hills? Why are my gems on one of these desert hills?? And that silk might as well not even be there with how useful it's going to be to me in the short- and medium- term.

On the bright side, I still have my flood plains and significantly more forest chops, but my initial instinct is to just go back to where I was. Still plenty of time to think about it though.

[Krill]

Truthfully, this is one of those starts where turning the table over is perfectly understandable. Single food starts aren't acceptable, and flood plains don't count.

You could just wander in the fog forever. Or until the settler is deleted on turn 20.

[superjm]

There's still a chance of some food showing up to the west in which case back 2NW and then 2W might be an option for a settle spot, though that'd be a T3 settle and it'd be away from the floodplains. Continuing South or East seems like a bad idea, though there's always the temptation of hoping the fog contains some amazing tiles and settling on the silk

[Krill]

I don't really have anything to say: the start is bad, the map is bad, and the only way to win is to not play.