GOTM 16: Montezumahttp://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/info/leaders/leaders0017.jpg

This month, the difficulty comes back down to earth, and we have what should be a fun, quick game.

This game MUST be played in patch version 1.61. We will NOT accept any games played under any other patch versions, and you can't play it in warlords!

Further, it MUST be played using HOF mod version 1.61.010. (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/mods/HOF-1.61.010.exe)




Game settings:
Civilization: Aztec (Leader: Montezuma ; Traits: Aggressive, Spiritual)
Rivals: 4
Difficulty: Prince
Map: Pangea
Mapsize: Small
Climate: cold
Water level: Low
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: Aggressive AI, Raging Barbs
Victory Conditions: all enabled

Montezuma:
Montezuma is Aggressive and Spiritual; starting with Hunting and Mysticism. Aggressive allows a free combat 1 promotion for melee & gunpowder units, and double production speed of barracks and drydocks. Spiritual allows no anarchy when changing civics, as well as double production speed of temples.

Unique unit: Jaguar:
The Jaguar replaces the standard swordsman. The strength is reduced by 1 to 5, and the cost is reduced by 5 hammers from 40 to 35. In addition to the 10% attack bonus for cities, the Jaguar receives an additional 25% defensive bonus for jungle. Critically, unlike the swordsman, it is a resourceless unit - you don't need to have secured iron.

The starting screenshot is here (click for a bigger version!)
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/gotm16small.jpg (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/gotm16large.jpg)

Adventurer Class bonuses:

Start knowledge of mining.
Start with a worker.



Challenger Class Equalisers:

All other civilizations begin with an archer.
All other civilizations start with a bonus tech.

A quick conquest should be easy. I will try a minimalistic approach, completely focusing on conquest.

The initial scout movement should be crucial to decide where to settle. I think I will move it SW-NW, but N-NW looks promising too.

This map looks perfect for Jaguar rushing everyone. Gotta watch out for those barbs though. I have been wanting to try fast conquest for a while now so this should be fun. :)

This one looks fun, pity for the normal speed, but the small map and the low difficulty can help.
Raging barbs... at this level they're a problem, but not a nightmare.
Aggressive AI... less than us, a lot less.

A practice game can help, and i need some of those settings for my Quattromaster, then it's perfect.

The starting spot looks like it would be a really nice city, but the hill over by the flood plain might be even better...

Will anyone not try for Conquest with these settings? Should I deliberately pursue a Cultural victory or something so I'll have some shot at an award? Hmm... :)

I actually was thinking a few days ago of going for conquest, but now I've seen what the game is I'll probably go for culture or spacerace instead. (a) because of the perception that almost everyone else will do conquest, and (b) because on this map if I go for conquest the game will probably be over in about 2 hours and then I'll have nothing to do for two weeks :lol:

It might be fun to try a cultural victory. The aggressive trait and UU will make expansion and defense much easier. I think I'll need to play a few test games with these settings.

What does the "Aggressive AI" setting do? How much more aggressive than normal are they?

The initial scout movement should be crucial to decide where to settle. I think I will move it SW-NW, but N-NW looks promising too.

I think that the scouting wont help you. If you move SW-NW you will see the two forest, which are visible now and nothing more.

The N-NW might reveal something, but I just think there forest/jungle all around, expecially in this tropical climate.

The whole game just looks like a run for conquest. It was my idea also. Now, after the second thought I might choose some other to increase the chance od award.

To ainwood: Thank you. You must be a seer. :rolleyes: I am moving to a new flat this month, so this fast and small map fits perfectly. ;)

If you settle in place, you can't use that floodplain in the lower southwest. What about moving the settler one south? You'd still have the two resources, plus you'd add the floodplain?

On the other hand, you'd lose two hills in the north, so you would gain growth but lose production.

Never mind. Maybe I just talked myself out of my own idea. :blush:

If you settle in place, you can't use that floodplain in the lower southwest. What about moving the settler one south? You'd still have the two resources, plus you'd add the floodplain?

On the other hand, you'd lose two hills in the north, so you would gain growth but lose production.

Never mind. Maybe I just talked myself out of my own idea. :blush:

Yes - I'm thinking that the flood plain (and possible other flood plains nearby can be used by a second city... :)

What does the "Aggressive AI" setting do? How much more aggressive than normal are they?

The AI are less happy at the same number. For example, on normal setting, the AI might be 0 cautioius when you first meet. Under these settings they are more likely to be 0 annoyed when you first meet. Later on, where +2 might have been pleased for a particular AI, on these settings +2 will be cautious. You just have to achieve higher plusses (or lower minuses) to get a certain attitude.

The starting spot looks like it would be a really nice city, but the hill over by the flood plain might be even better...

Will anyone not try for Conquest with these settings? Should I deliberately pursue a Cultural victory or something so I'll have some shot at an award? Hmm... :)

<chuckle> Conquest is a rare enough victory type for me that I'll take the oppertunity to go for it this time! When I do play that way it's with Keshiks as Mongolia, so this will be way out of my normal playing style to go for conquest ;)

Ran some test games to get an idea of when the AI pops wonders with the challanger settings. For 10 games I got the following average and (minimum/maximum) turns for the AI to finish the early to mid religions/wonders.

Buddism 11 (8-14)
Hindu 20 (10-41)
Judism 55 (35-69)
Confu 114 (90-137)
Christ 124 (82-156)
Tao 158 (125-186)
Islam 196 (184-205)

Stonehen 92 (69-133)
Oracle 100 (82-121)
Pyramids 121 (100-150)
Parth 137 (119-161)
Gr Light 145 (130-166)
Great Lib 180 (148-195)
Hang Gard 185 (138-200)
Colossus 188 (132-202)

A few observations from clicking through the games:

Obviously it's a small map and everyone gets to know each other very quickly. You won't have any advantage for being "better connected" so it will probably be more imporant than usual to keep Alphabet to yourself for as long as possible.

With all of the jungle it will be a while before roads make connections for resource trading and for foreign trade routes. If this is a priority it will be much faster to connect via Sailing along with open borders and make sure you explore and reveal a coastline connection.

I didn't find there to be jungle everywhere on this kind of map but there is at least one large jungle area. There will be civs located in more forested regions and that will be much to their advantage in the early going. It looks like we could be pinned between a massive jungle to the north and ocean to the south. If that's the case it's not a great place to be.

The barb situation seems highly dependent on proximety to jungle and whether or not you are buffered by other civs. On the maps where you're alone next to a large jungle (which could be the case here) you're going to get a steady stream. I don't usually do archers but may this time.

The Pryamids were built several times (out of 10 runs) at or around turn 100 but this was only if the civ had access to stone. Otherwise it was closer to 150. The map may be small enough to explore in time to know what you're up against. If you can build them soon enough the chances of getting the Great Library (via a GE) seems very high. The GL was much more consistantly built toward the later end of the range (I think because the AI is rather slow to tech Literature).

I might like to play for other than conquest too... maybe space.

Starting 1 tile south might be good for a long game. Could get a lot of early GP's with a 3-food tile capitol, and it would be a better cash-cow in the long run. We'd gain the hill we're on for giving up the forest hill, and it frees up the north for settling. Looks workable.

I've never actually attempted a conquest before. I generally prefer the other victory types, but this does seem like it was tailor made for a conquest victory. Might as well be my first attempt.

Out of curiousity, when attempting a conquest win, do most people do the CS slingshot? Or in this case, are you better off getting the techs for the Jaguar UU and just cranking out the armies ASAP?

G

I think I'll probably move my scout 1 E 1 NE. If there's a food resource in sight I'll probably put my settler on the forest plain hill NE-E. Probably not as good as 1 S or 1 E immediately, but with the amount of jungle around, it'll probably be nice to have at least two solid cities without having to do some serious bushwhacking.

Gorgon: Most of the fastest conquest players do not even reach CS in tech before they are finished.

If you are considering a quick conquest, wonders are pretty much out of the question. In WOTM5, I spent 35 turns building 4 early wonders, then went entirely military for the rest of the game, if I hadn't done that, I could have cut at least 75 turns off my time. The earlier you start, the faster you'll finish.

I"m thinking of heading SE to settle. Then beelining for the great wall, let the AI deal with the barbs

I"m thinking of heading SE to settle. Then beelining for the great wall, let the AI deal with the barbs

Hmmmm.... This game is for vanila.... No GW...

With raging barbs, two factors I prioritize higher than usual:
* Settle on hills
* Get to archery asap and train archers (good synergy with settling on hills of course).

When I say asap, I'm pretty sure I can throw in Poly first, but I'll do some tests before I start (getting religion will help with early city defense due to the culture boost).

After that, beeline for IW and spam out the Jags (I guess we won't have copper nearby or I'll certainly throw some of those into the mix).

Gorgon: Most of the fastest conquest players do not even reach CS in tech before they are finished.

If you are considering a quick conquest, wonders are pretty much out of the question. In WOTM5, I spent 35 turns building 4 early wonders, then went entirely military for the rest of the game, if I hadn't done that, I could have cut at least 75 turns off my time. The earlier you start, the faster you'll finish.

Makes sense. Thanks Thrallia. This is new to me so it should be fun. :)

I'm likely to go space or cultural so want a good long-term commerce spot for the capital. I'm pondering about the hill W of the corn for settling. It loses the clam but looks like it has at least two, possibly three, flood plains (SW of the hill looks like one, I can't figure out the tile W of the hill). That has the advantage that you can start cottaging really early. The other reason why I'm tempted by it is that it looks to me like there's coast south of the visible flood plain. If that sea stretches west then settling in-place might make at least one floodplain permanently unusable.

Trouble is - moving the settler there will waste two turns if it turns out the starting spot is better. :crazyeye: And the starting spot does look not too far off cottage-heaven, with rivers and decent production too, although eventually it'll need a few farms to give enough food to work all the hills.

I'm disinclined to settle 1S of the start because that will bring in too many ocean tiles for my liking.

(EDIT: I'm also pondering about 1N of the starting spot. That stops you building a lighthouse, but keeps the clam and corn (although you can't build a workboat until you have another coastal city), and looks like it may increase the number of grassland/grassland-hill tiles. And makes it marginally more likely that another city to the SW can work the flood plains)

am i the only one who's going to settle 1E, the spot where the scout is now?
6F from corn + 6 grass hills sounds great to me! and with more happines there's still clam, plain hills and room still room for few cottages but this will propably(hopefully :D ) before that.

does anyone agree?

Pangea/low/small is not very small at all. A couple of worldbuilder maps indicates that the land is about 40 tiles across. A little bit too far for Jaguars only. The start screen indicates a twin city placement (2W from settler and 2E). A third city may be necessary to get horses. Research to Iron Working and Horseback Riding, then build jaguar and horse archers. Shut down research to save gold for maintenance. Keep captured cities to build more units. The tricky question is if the challenger settings will generate a higher score or not?...

On the first turn I'll Move the scout N, NW while moving the settler SW,W to see what is revealed.

Hmmmm.... This game is for vanila.... No GW...

gah!!!!
hmmm, guess you can tell what version of civ I play most, time to change plans lol:blush:

I'll probably move the the settler SW then either W or NW, or NE then E for the two hammer capital. In any event I figure my first two cities will make use of this area it all depends what my initial push will be, tech to conquest or bang out some units at the start. At prince I surmise an early weak unit force could make some ground, although contending with barbs with any sort of fast conquest becomes increasingly difficult unless the space is tamed by your cities.

I hope that Challenger in this game is in resonable scale. Not like absolutly unplayeble in Wotm6 or resonably unfair in Gotm15

am i the only one who's going to settle 1E, the spot where the scout is now?
6F from corn + 6 grass hills sounds great to me! and with more happines there's still clam, plain hills and room still room for few cottages but this will propably(hopefully :D ) before that.

does anyone agree?

It all depends on what you typically like to do, or what you want to do with your capital in this game. Ask youself this, when you get to Bureaucracy, do you like the 50% production boost or the 50% income boost? If your capital is your production center, than your starting cite is great. You've added all those hills by moving one east. If you're like me, I usually have a production center in another city by this point in the game, so I'm (usually) using my capital as my income/science center. The 50% production boost is just nice to have, but its more like icing on the cake.

That's what's cool about this game. So many ways to analyze it, until your head hurts ...

I hope that Challenger in this game is in resonable scale. Not like absolutly unplayeble in Wotm6 or resonably unfair in Gotm15

I suspect people going for long-term peaceful sciency games may find that the challenger setting helps them to get a fast victory. The AI's extra archer is largely irrelevent if you're not doing early warmongering. And the extra AI techs will mean you have more techs to trade when you reach alphabet: A common issue on prince is that if you get alphabet early and do one or two rounds of tech trading, you end up so far ahead of the AI that there's nothing more you can trade for.

One thing to watch for though - with the aggressive AI settings, the challenger setting will mean that you start off militarily weaker than all the AI - that might make some AIs more likely to declare war on you very early on (I noticed in a couple of tests that with the aggressive AI settings, the AI sometimes declares war on you very early - eg. when you've just founded your 2nd city and the AI still has only warriors to attack with)

...might make some AIs more likely to declare war on you very early on If they're anywhere close to you, which I doubt with only 4 AIs. I'm thinking we're going to spend half the game searching them out.

If they're anywhere close to you, which I doubt with only 4 AIs. I'm thinking we're going to spend half the game searching them out.

In the 10 test games I ran (just clicking through to see when wonders were built) I was just a homebody and met all 5 AIs very quickly (the 4 other civs and the barbs).

Regarding the comment about the AIs declaring early war, this definitely could be true especially if you take a religion. In the games I was clicking through (up to turn 200) I didn't have a religion and they largely left me alone but I was playing random opponents and wasn't up against a predominence of warmongers. I expect this to be a cagematch on a tight island against a bunch of thugs with well endowed capitals probably even better than ours. It's going to be a free-for-all.

One other thing I noticed was that each civ will have a limited number of cities before land runs out and there were some very large stacks of defenders in those cities especially after the early ages.

met all 5 AIs very quickly (the 4 other civs and the barbs)Meeting is one thing, having them close enough to worry about stack attacks another. I assume you tested with low water level. How close were their capitals to yours?

I suspect people going for long-term peaceful sciency games may find that the challenger setting helps them to get a fast victory. The AI's extra archer is largely irrelevent if you're not doing early warmongering. And the extra AI techs will mean you have more techs to trade when you reach alphabet: A common issue on prince is that if you get alphabet early and do one or two rounds of tech trading, you end up so far ahead of the AI that there's nothing more you can trade for.

One thing to watch for though - with the aggressive AI settings, the challenger setting will mean that you start off militarily weaker than all the AI - that might make some AIs more likely to declare war on you very early on (I noticed in a couple of tests that with the aggressive AI settings, the AI sometimes declares war on you very early - eg. when you've just founded your 2nd city and the AI still has only warriors to attack with)

Another thing to consider is whether or not you want a religion... Their extra tech could certainly be relevant to when the first 3 religions are founded.

Meeting is one thing, having them close enough to worry about stack attacks another. I assume you tested with low water level. How close were their capitals to yours?

I've generated quite a few maps at these settings and looked at them with worldbuilder (mostly coz I was trying to figure out what the difference is between Pressed and Natural coastline!). I'd say all bets are off on the distance to the nearest AI. I've seen it 20 tiles away, and I've seen it 5-6 tiles away. On average (median) I guess you're looking at 10-12ish tiles though.

My take: Use that scout and don't decide how to deal with the AI until you have some idea of the map.

I have played 2 test games and the observations:

having the nearest AI's capital 8 and 10 tiles from the starting spot. I have destroyed them with jags before they settled the second city. (research agri, mining, bronze, iron, built worker, barack, settler, wariors until iron)

You can have the budhism AND research agriculture before you finish the worker from the start.

Barbs are not a problem, merely annoying. Archers appeared 1000BC, axes 400BC. Shock jaguar on a forested hill will usually kill barb axe. Lot of wariors comming, but you can just promote jags on them.

Killed 2 civs before they hooked up metal. Build nothing except barracks and army. Looks promising for conquest. Tried to research cats before shutting down research, but got broke, just when started construction. The army maintenance is just too big to research that far. So max research horse archers.

I played one test game with a similar start location. Founded two cities, teched to IW and then filled in some worker techs before shutting down the science.

Conquest victory by 1020 AD, nothing special at all. I think the real cause was not getting the first few jags out quickly enough to wipe out the first two opponents before they put down their 3rd (the first civ), and 4th (the second civ), cities. Spent way too much time throwing my stacks around finishing off these crappy size 1 or 2 cities. I guess in the future I need to have another stack of like 5 city raider jags that are on cleanup duty while the main stack of jags and axes goes after the big cities.

The AI never really competed with me. Even the last civ for me to kill was still using just axes, horse archers, and spearmen at 1020 AD.


Little question for the people who know how this game works. I finished with a score of ~36000, up from 1000 when the game ended. How does one make sure that he gets the most points possible? I guess I got no real points from tech, and because I was razing cities after the first two civs due to maintenence I didn't get the same amounts of land/population. The goal was to capture the pyramids and then go state prop so I could afford to keep more cities, but they were, no joke, in the single furthest away city on the map. I just remember looking at some of the other gotm games with early conquest/domination wins, gotm 14(was that the russian one? =x), very early wins with scores around 75k.

Pyramids has nothing to do with State Property. You aren't going to get Communism by 1000 AD.

Pyramids has nothing to do with State Property. You aren't going to get Communism by 1000 AD.


I think that may be one of my issues, I just don't really know my way around civ4, still stuck on civ3. I somehow drew a parallel from police state -> state property. =[

:blush: oops - just checked and the climate is actually "cold". Sorry about that.....

:blush: oops - just checked and the climate is actually "cold". Sorry about that.....

I wondered why I was shivering on the way into work....;)

My last completed game was an Aztec conquest ([c4w] though) on a small pangaea, and that was a totally random start. I'm thinking maybe again, but then, so is everyone else. My last two Civ3 GOTMs as the Aztecs ended up in space, so maybe my Aztonauts will make a re-appearance ;)

I think that the scouting wont help you. If you move SW-NW you will see the two forest, which are visible now and nothing more.

Well, I think I am going to find 2 fishes and 1 whale in the tiles 3S, so I will happily settle 1S. If you are not going to move your Scout my way, you won't see all those sea resources and you won't settle 1S. ;)

Settling 1S or 1E loses 2 health from river.

Well, I think I am going to find 2 fishes and 1 whale in the tiles 3S, so I will happily settle 1S. If you are not going to move your Scout my way, you won't see all those sea resources and you won't settle 1S. ;)

Settling 1S or 1E loses 2 health from river.


But at least I won't finish settling on the iron which is just hidden there ;)

:blush: oops - just checked and the climate is actually "cold". Sorry about that.....

I just wonder how that changes the plans for the game. By the way on the download page, there is written that we have 6 opponents. Thats quite crowded and would definitely change the game if it is true. (in favour of jaguars)

I just played a couple of trial games and learned a couple of lessons.

1. Jaguars ar slow when the game is "normal" speed. The time (and opponent techs) just seem to fly by once you've shut down research and gone all out military.
2. Horse archers just don't charge through jungle like Keshiks! ;)
3. If you're going for conquest, make sure you do it before any of your enemies get feudalism. Once they do that, you might as well pension off your jags and horse archers and build lots of settlers hoping for domination before you go broke!
4. If Caesar's in the game, stomp on him before he gets iron!

Having said all that, the jag/horse archer thing seems to work quite well. You need to keep an eye on barbs, and good positioning of cities and fogbusters helps.

By the way on the download page, there is written that we have 6 opponents. Thats quite crowded and would definitely change the game if it is true. (in favour of jaguars)

Hmm. So which s right? In this thread it says 4 rivals which is the normal for a small map. I guess we'll find out once we start playing and get to about 2000BC. On a small map, you meet everyone fairly quickly. If it is six rivals, there will be more of a window for the jaguars, and perhaps less trouble with barbs.


oops - just checked and the climate is actually "cold". Sorry about that.....

It might change things, making conquest a little easier as there might be a lot of ice that other civs won't be in a hurry to settle on - the barbarians will settle it though.

Is it just me or does the submission date and the advice to NOTE that date make anyone nervous about what supposedly will be a simple and quick "Prince" game? :mischief:

Is it just me or does the submission date and the advice to NOTE that date make anyone nervous about what supposedly will be a simple and quick "Prince" game? :mischief:

Huh? It's exactly the same time period as every other GOTM game.

Huh? It's exactly the same time period as every other GOTM game.

Sorry, just trying to be clever. I meant the fact it's to be turned in on April Fools Day?
Of course, the same fear could also apply ON April 1st for GOTM17?

i would build an army of jaguars and kick butt

i would build an army of jaguars and kick butt

You may build your jag army, but I've got TM on butt-kicking :p

Hmm. So which s right? In this thread it says 4 rivals which is the normal for a small map. I guess we'll find out once we start playing and get to about 2000BC. On a small map, you meet everyone fairly quickly.

You can find out much earlier than that... I am not sure if it shows up in 4000 BC, but certainly by the next turn (as soon as you hit "end turn"), if you go to the victory conditions screen, in the conquest section it will tell you how many rivals are still alive.

I'm quite inexperienced, having won only 1 Noble game so far, so I'll be on Adventurer. If I'm contemplating a Conquest victory, or at least an early attempt at warmongering via Jaguars, I realize I need Iron Working soon, and also appropriate worker techs. Do I ignore the early religions (that is, forgetting about the Mysticism tech)?

Ignoring religions would be fine. You will be conquering the cities where the religions were founded anyway. :evil:

You can then spread the religions if you need them.

Ignoring religions would be fine. You will be conquering the cities where the religions were founded anyway. :evil:

You can then spread the religions if you need them.

I agree. In one practice I founded buddhism, but I decided it was a waste of time. Just beeline for more important stuff and capture the Buddhist holy city later ;)

Ignoring religions would be fine.OK. Seems slightly strange to ignore a starting tech, but I think I've seen other comments about the starting tech for a particular civilization being less than completely useful for some strategies.

Not necessarily forgetting it. It will still be useful for building Obelisks, for early culture.

I agree. In one practice I founded buddhism, but I decided it was a waste of time. Just beeline for more important stuff and capture the Buddhist holy city later ;)

Mostly agree, but it's worth pointing out that if you start on a continent with few or no AI's on it, and you're planning on a cultural victory, then it may be more important to try and grab early religions just to make sure you do get some pre-caravels (especially as if you're going cultural, optics isn't a tech that you'd probably want to research anyway). Also, if you're intending to build the Oracle, that means you will need to research either polytheism or meditation quite early on anyway, which may give an additional argument for doing it first.

Mostly agree, but it's worth pointing out that if you start on a continent with few or no AI's on it, and you're planning on a cultural victory, then it may be more important to try and grab early religions just to make sure you do get some pre-caravels (especially as if you're going cultural, optics isn't a tech that you'd probably want to research anyway). Also, if you're intending to build the Oracle, that means you will need to research either polytheism or meditation quite early on anyway, which may give an additional argument for doing it first.

I totally agree, but in this particular game I'm planning a military victory and it's pangea. And I'm not planning to build the oracle - too many hammers on something that I can't march up to an enemy city and break down the gates with ;) The only set back will be lack of culture before writing. I'll think about that before I play.

I totally agree, but in this particular game I'm planning a military victory and it's pangea. And I'm not planning to build the oracle - too many hammers on something that I can't march up to an enemy city and break down the gates with ;) The only set back will be lack of culture before writing. I'll think about that before I play.

it sounds a little contradictory to me. You aren't going to break down their gates with writing, are you?

if you need culture, Monty starts with mysticism. And obelisks are just cheaper than libraries.

it sounds a little contradictory to me. You aren't going to break down their gates with writing, are you?

if you need culture, Monty starts with mysticism. And obelisks are just cheaper than libraries.

Yes, my mistake. I was thinking obelisks came with Meditation. Amazing the mental slips one can make... So Meditation becomes even less valauable ;)

Hi all,

Will be tackling this as my first ever GOTM. Have been reading people's thoughts and am very intrigued. Most seem intent on Domination victory very early.

My issue with Domination victory on pangea maps is that I seem to conquer those on same land mass and then by the time I get astronomy the other AIs are too strong to conquer easily.

Has anyone else had this issue?

My issue with Domination victory on pangea maps is that I seem to conquer those on same land mass and then by the time I get astronomy the other AIs are too strong to conquer easily.

Pangaea means "one continent". Normally, on a pangaea map, all of the civilizations are on the same landmass. (I don't know if this is absolutely guaranteed, or only usual.)

Pangaea means "one continent". Normally, on a pangaea map, all of the civilizations are on the same landmass. (I don't know if this is absolutely guaranteed, or only usual.)

Pangea does mean one land mass, and on such maps the vast majority of land is in one lump. Occasionally there are small islands off the coast that the AI will go and settle on, but I've never come accross one that can't be reached with galleys (that is, pre-astronomy)

Oops.

Must have Pangea confused with another map type.

Can you tell I am new.

On the first turn I'll Move the scout N, NW while moving the settler SW,W to see what is revealed.I'm just starting today, on Adventurer. I'm guessing using the bonus worker in place of your settler move might make sense -- plus, there's nothing else to do with it until Ag or Wheel. I think I recall the GOTM15 discussion saying that even on deity there are a few rounds before animals show up. Well, I'll have done it before anyone replies, but I'd appreciate any guidance about how reasonable it was.

Whenever I did Adventurer games, I always explored with my worker for at least 6 or 7 turns...I only ever lost him once and that was a long time ago when i explored with him for like...20 turns lol boy was that dumb.