Aaaarmy Training, Sir!

]This will be a SG using Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia. Max size of roster will be eight nine TEN players. I am U.S. central time (GMT -5).

This SG will use very relaxed ppp and turnset submission times. If someone can't play their set or heaven forbid, loses interest--we'll just move along. That being said I really hope to learn a lot here and am encouraged to see the interest.

Setttings:
Immortal/Standard size map/Normal speed/NH,NE (all other options default meaning vassals enabled, no permanent alliances, etc.)
Map = Fractal, temperate, low sea level, cylindrical wrap

OFFICIAL ROSTER
1. Solyaris
2. Walter_Wolf
3. Lymond
4. yena
5. ShiVvV
6. Packers5280
7. pigswill
8. Quip
9. Deonnim
10. shpeka (removed 10/01/2014)

Here's the start and settings:


P.S.-I have zero experience hosting these and have only just recently even participated in my first informal SG, so, any advice concerning how to efficiently moderate these things is appreciated.

Some Guidelines for Turnsets


Start save: View attachment 381220

Well, we should decide on length of turnsets. I'd say somewhere around 10-20 turns so that we can get detailed reports while letting everyone have a few turns to try to do something clever.

And since we have a start, I'll be the first to do start thoughts:

Well, it's probably a no brainer to SIP, but I do like 1 NW to save a hill. Loses coastal, but should provide for a good food sharing city 3E on the coast as our second/third city and someplace where we'd want to whip. Also might have seafood 1 SE of the scout that SIP would waste.

wow, double gems. A little bit low on production. Settle on bannana looks appealing, and too bad both agriculture specials are dry.

Just wanted to chime in. You don't lose time. I hope for a fun game.

cheers

Quip said:

Well, we should decide on length of turnsets. I'd say somewhere around 10-20 turns so that we can get detailed reports while letting everyone have a few turns to try to do something clever. Good point. The very first turnset I'd say 15 turns. 15 turns may also be good for the entire 1st round. The ppp will be heaviest and most crucial during entire first round of course.

And since we have a start, I'll be the first to do start thoughts:

Well, it's probably a no brainer to SIP, but I do like 1 NW to save a hill. Loses coastal, but should provide for a good food sharing city 3E on the coast as our second/third city and someplace where we'd want to whip. Also might have seafood 1 SE of the scout that SIP would waste.

Click to expand...

Scout should move first. Two possibilities that I can see;
1) 1E to reveal any seafood, then back 1NW on gh or 1NE to reveal more water tiles.
2) 1NW + 1W to assist in deciding whether to SIP.

I'd reckon that 1NW is the most obvious site, catches rice, picks up grassland instead of coast. Coastal cities can be built whenever but a strong capital is always good.

I'd move scout NW>W before deciding.

Feel free to add me, if you have room. If not I'll just lurk anyway and comment. (thanks for the PM Shiv)

SoB looks very appealing here indeed. The only question is killing fish. I'd simply move the scout 1SE at Turn 0 to ensure no dead fish. If there are live fish out of reach then do as Pigs suggested. If live fish within reach then maybe SiP.

I'm torn between settling 1NW or on the bananas. Both look like they would work well. If we would settle on the naners, the corn would be auto-irrigated once we hit CS. I don't think plantations provide irrigation, so that would make irrigating the corn easier. I'm with lymond with the scout going SE to see if the naners kills a fishing resource.

As for time zones, I'm in US central as well.

lymond said:

Feel free to add me, if you have room. If not I'll just lurk anyway and comment. (thanks for the PM Shiv) Hey! Lymond, welcome, and pm sincerely meant

SoB (I know what SoB means to me but I doubt is what you intended, so, SoB? nm, settle on bananas.) looks very appealing here indeed. The only question is killing fish. I'd simply move the scout 1SE at Turn 0 to ensure no dead fish. If there are live fish out of reach then do as Pigs suggested. If live fish within reach then maybe SiP.

Click to expand...

Hmm, settle on bananas. Did cross my mind. Everything depends on the scout move.
Moving scout 1E would reveal the water tile that is 1E>1SE of the corn (plus others), right? Continuing the scout's move 1S would reveal another workable seafood tile (2SE of the corn). Or scout could go 1E then 1SW onto the corn to reveal about all the immediate coast.

Settling on resources--I need to learn when this is more beneficial for the 'fast-start' and when is better to wait till tech becomes available to use.

Forgive me, guys. I'm already getting long-winded.

Agree with lymond, settle on banana would be superior in any way as long as you dont kill a seafood or two The "free" +1 food should not be underestimated!

Looks like a common worker -> grow 3 -> settler -> grow 4 -> whip worker -> overflow and chop worker 3, type of map

Starting with hunting and mining, agri + BW should be obvious early techs. Then probably something like TW -> pottery -> writing -> alpha? Or go archery if no bronze

I like the tech path (except for Archery, ofc). THis should be a really fast start. Ofc, more map knowledge may change things later, but I think that is a solid tech path regardless.

The idea behind the Scout 1SE is that there is one workable (and possibly fishy) tile that may not be revealed moving 1E. Not sure. Someone could test it.

Hey Shiv..You might invite Deonnim as well..this would be really beneficial for him. I don't really have to play much as regards to TSs, so I don't think another body would hurt much.

Solyaris said:

Agree with lymond, settle on banana would be superior in any way as long as you dont kill a seafood or two The "free" +1 food should not be underestimated!

Looks like a common worker -> grow 3 -> settler -> grow 4 -> whip worker -> overflow and chop worker 3, type of map A stupid q...producing warriors during the growth phases right?

Starting with hunting and mining, agri + BW should be obvious early techs. Then probably something like TW -> pottery -> writing -> alpha? Or go archery if no bronze

Click to expand...

Wouldn't scout going 1E>1SW(onto corn) reveal the most tiles, and also permit scout better 2-move option on T2?

@Lymond-invitation to Deonnim sent. As long as we don't end up with 50 players we should be ok

Packers5280 said:

I'm torn between settling 1NW or on the bananas. Both look like they would work well. If we would settle on the naners, the corn would be auto-irrigated once we hit CS.yep I don't think plantations provide irrigation nope, so that would make irrigating the corn easier. I'm with lymond with the scout going SE to see if the naners kills a fishing resource.

As for time zones, I'm in US central as well.

Click to expand...

.
good point re. auto-irrigation

We want to unfog that tile 4E of the settler and I think the only way to do that is to go 1SE. I would not worry too much about 1t of scout movement at the start. Most important thing is not to murder fish.

I may wrong, but it could be tested. Pretty sure that forest there will hinder visibility on that tile.

You probably have enough players, but I'm interested if there is still a spot left. If not I'll just lurk.

Yeah, scout 1SE, post a screenshot, and then we can decide the settling spot.
Agree on Agriculture -> BW

Scout SE for seafood.

I'm really torn on settling. Settling on banana sounds good. Then again - farmed banana is a 4 food tile, we could use that as well. We should not underestimate coastal (even though I don't really like it). It gives the potential of going for TGLH, and unlocks lighthouses (for a 3F2C lake tile and +health).

I don't have time to actually play turns due to SGOTM and real life commitments, but i wouldn't mind posting some thoughts and opinions.

I think settling on bananas is by far the best start unless it kills fish or something. Agree with Lymond on scout SE to check for that.

The reason settling on bananas is so good is that it gets you +1F right from turn 1 which allows for a faster worker. The 12T worker gets corn farmed 3T earlier which, in addition to the +1F city tile, allows you to grow your capitol to S2 and S3 faster which will lead to working gems earlier, getting your 2nd city faster, etc. The earlier gems allow you to get your early techs a bit faster too. Also, you don't have to spend 5 worker turns farming a banana that you will probably want to spend another 5T putting a plantation on later in the game. It's really just not worth it. +6F surplus will suffice for this city for awhile. I wouldn't prioritize the dry rice too early either.

Some info to support my opinion.

Growth to S3 settling on banana
T12 - worker starts on corn farm, city starts growing at +4F per turn
T16 - 5F corn is online, capitol already has 16F stored, now at +6F
T17 - S2 0/24F in bank, either +6F or +7F depending on whether you work the 3F dry rice or a 2F1H forest to get warrior a bit faster.
T21 - S3

Growth to S3 settling 1NW
T0 - lose 1T moving
T16 - worker finishes, puts 1T into banana farm on the way by, capitol starts growing at +3F
T17 - worker starts corn, city has 3F
T21 - 5F corn online, capitol has 15F, now at +5F
T23 - growth to S2 with 4/24F stored
T27 - S3 (i think no matter which tiles you choose to work)

6T faster growth to S2 and S3! And on top of that you now are faced with the decision of spending 4 more turns finishing the banana farm vs mining your gems after the corn. With settling on banana you could have your first gems mined by T21.

Ag > BW looks pretty good too with all of the forests. Starting with Hunting will allow for quick Archery if you completely whiff on copper and need barb defense.

I agree as well with SoB, as long as it doesn't kill seafood. I can put together a map that looks like ours through WB tonight and see if moving the scout 1SE would open up visibility like we need it (barring that's an acceptable thing to do).

I'm also in agreement with the tech choices. I'm not hugely comfortable on this difficulty level, only know strategies from reading forums and watching LP's, but those seem reasonable choices.

Thanks for the invite ShiVvV, Zara is who I won my first game with so I have sentimental attachments to him. And thanks Lymond for offering me up a spot.

Zara is a great leader indeed.

Although this is casual as most SGs are, I recommend we formulate turnset plans for discussion, at least for a good part of the early game, as it seems in line with the purpose of the SG. The planning and discussion is what will help players learn.

Fire this game up whenever you are ready.

I rate Zara slightly below the middle of the pack for a game like this with normal settings. I don't want to derail this thread before it gets started though Besides, i think it will be good to not have a really strong leader for this kind of game, particularly one with an early game-changing UU.

yena said:

You probably have enough players, but I'm interested if there is still a spot left. If not I'll just lurk.

Click to expand...

Added you to roster, yena, and welcome.

@Izuul--thanks for your analysis concerning initial settle location. This type of thing I find really helpful. Continue to comment as you like-no danger of derailing as we haven't yet researched RR.

I have closed the roster; we are at 10 players which is maybe a little large but I'd like everyone that wants to play to be able to do so. I realize with this number of players that it may seem like forever before a given player's next turnset comes around, not to mention that the in-game situation will have changed quite a bit since a player's previous set. It will just be a 'hurry up n wait' type thing for all.

We will need to keep things moving at a pretty good clip however because I'd hate to lose folks as game progresses and decisions necessitate more discussion/planning. With that in mind I'd like to ask that the next player up in the rotation following a completed turnset place a quick post so that we know the handoff has occurred. As long as we know the next player has the save and is planning his set things should run smoothly. If you need a skip or are just putting together ideas for your set just say so.

I know that some of us are a lot more SG-savvy than others and may have varying opinions about the detail of planning/discussion and whatnot should happen before playing turnset. I don't want folks to feel rushed but neither do I think any of us want turnsets to be played where a lot of major events (DoW's, new city settlements, wonders started, etc.) occur without some type of prior consensus. I also realize that none of us probably have the time to detail turn-by-turn actions for every single unit and in-game event. So......we'll find our rhythm and I'm probably overthinking things but my 2 cents.

I'm gonna add some general PPP guidelines to the OP concerning this that was just c/p-ed from a succession game thread.