[SPOILERS] Sevenspirits's thread for dueling 2metraninja

[SevenSpirits]

This thread is for non-ninjas.

[SevenSpirits]

Settings
* Mirrorland map with "Critical resources close" setting and no pre-placed improvements. Other than that default.
* Map size tiny.
* Prince difficulty.
* Quick speed.
* Options: no barbarians, unrestricted leaders, always war, no vassal states, no tribal villages, no random events.
* Both players playing as Gandhi of China which we thought would be interesting.

House rules:
* No war elephants.
* Spies can't perform missions.
* "Wimpy units can't take the first aggressive action of the game."




2metraninja went first and didn't settle on t0. Hmmmm...

[SevenSpirits]

I assumed that 2metra moved here, and since whatever he did caused him to not settle, I moved that way too.




Now what? I'll leave it there for pondering for a bit.

[Dhalphir]

i'm going to read this and learn as much from you as possible, since your other game involves me as a competitor and i can't learn from that one

[Fintourist]

Since 2metra probably won't report, I might as well comment with ded-lurker mentality. Assuming same warrior move I can't see any other reason to not to settle t0 than moving N-NW in order to get fish+pigs+crabs in BFC. Loses flood plains and bunch of forests so it's a bit questionable whether the fish compensates for that.

[Dhalphir]

If your aim is the fish, you can get that with city#2 and share a chunk of river tiles.

[SevenSpirits]

One of my goals was to avoid adding variance to the start by taking a risk and settling an inferior capital compared to my opponent. So I decided to reveal a few more tiles with my settler. I moved onto the pig, thinking that any of the three spots which claim fish and are adjacent to pig are worth looking into. This revealed a couple more resources (I don't have an intermediate screenshot) and thus armed with new knowledge I moved like this:




I figured that with the newly revealed resources, I could discount the forest SW of pig as the best option, and it would be valuable to reveal some more tiles in the north before making the final decision next turn.

Settling on this forest is an interesting possibility. That city has an insane amount of food. The main benefit of settling there is you get the lighthouse bonus on almost all of those lake tiles. This would then become either a crazy NE city or an amazing capital under HR with Moai. Ideally the pigs could be shared out to other cities because so many food resources are unnecessary once it's full size.

The drawback of settling on the forest is that you only get one forest in the capital's BFC. A side effect of this is a complete lack of natural hammer tiles, which could make producing workboats annoying, but of course the main drawback is simply that there's nothing to chop. Also, while claiming 5 food resources might seem extra great, it's not like we can effectively use all of them in a single city. And of course, settling on that forest kills it. At this point I'm feeling really unsure of what to do here, as settling a 1-forest capital is the kind of decision that could be a major error.

Btw, fishing is a 3-turn tech here, on this tiny map. 32b.

Next turn we'll probably be able to tell where 2metraninja decided to settle, based on rival land area.

[BRickAstley]

My first thought on seeing that would be to use a capital settled there to claim foo, and then use that as a settler pump for decently fast expansion, and settle other cities for the forest chopping producers. plus, all 3 of the seafoods you'd grab would be easily shareable, so you wouldn't be wasting all the food on one city, just the 2 pigs really.

[SevenSpirits]

Here's my decision.




I believed that this city spot would be the only way to lighthouse so many of those lake tiles, and that's worth a lot. Meanwhile I didn't think a WB first opening (where other capital spots could have an advantage) was a good idea. 2 pigs is a pretty good argument for worker first.

I have the luxury of being able to research fishing before AH, because of the cheap tech costs. This lets me work the 3/0/2 tile instead of 3/0/1 tile after 3t and I'll still get AH in time for the worker. A quick mental check says I also get BW (next tech after AH) in time for when I want it.

My assumption is that the worker will improve both pigs and we'll grow to size 3 at least. Then, perhaps whip a WB and grow more, then whip a settler? We shall see when the time comes closer. One thing's for sure, I want to be whipping this city as close to every 6 turns as possible. It will be a bit hard pre-granary and trivial after.

[SevenSpirits]

Forgot to mention with the last post: I can guess pretty well based on land area where 2metraninja settled. Since he had land area of 6, I believe he settled W of the pig, claiming pig and fish. His land area post-border-pop matches this too, I think.




The border pop revealed a sheep in the north, which can justify a city which shares the northern pig.

My first thought on seeing that would be to use a capital settled there to claim foo, and then use that as a settler pump for decently fast expansion, and settle other cities for the forest chopping producers. plus, all 3 of the seafoods you'd grab would be easily shareable, so you wouldn't be wasting all the food on one city, just the 2 pigs really.

It's true... but I'd prefer to share the pigs if possible instead (and the crab), because the two western seafoods will be getting a lighthouse bonus in this city only.


So... weird starting position, huh?