Use to do that on Pangea aswel... but I found out that its slower on culture and faith and in the end you dont really discover more ruins on average in the long term than if you go scout scout Monument shrine.
Try it.
That is by far the most standard build there is and I've tried it about a hundred times if I had to guess
Its more about worker steal/caravan pillage/settler block/barb quest than ruins I think. Doing some neighbourhood duty while still meeting all AI and CS fast.
I agree on ruins though, you usually get the ones next to you, and seldom more, with 1 or 3 scouts (on Deity at least).
This man gets it!
For everyone else questing the triple Scout build, here's a small compendium of what Scouts should do for you:
- Meeting all the AIs as soon as possible
- Locating all the AIs as soon as possible
- Stealing a Worker from the AI
- Farming Workers from the AI
- Pillaging Caravans
- Blocking Workers or Settlers
- Blocking choke points on the map to hinder advancement
- Getting all the CS money/faith as soon as possible
- Getting all first CS quests as soon as possible
- Steal a Worker from CS
- Farm Workers from CS
- Discover NW for CS
- Discover Borders for CS
- Find empty Barb Camps for CS
- Find unprotected Workers from CS
- Revealing the geographic details of the map
- Revealing the best city spots
- Revealing Luxury/Strategics density in order to pick Trad/Lib
- Finding Barbs to make Worker/Settler escorts more safe
- Escorting/Protecting Workers/Settlers
- Going back to your lands after the Archer upgrade
- Getting to the other end of the map before it is closed off by AI borders (happens quite often to me on crowded Pangeas)
- Abusing the vision promotion to stop Barbarian Camps from spawning
- Stacking defensive promotions on a City State so you can farm EXP with Archers (CS will always attack the weaker Scout, even if he is fortified)
- Revealing the best way to reach AI capitals for a domination victory
- Huts
Notice how goodie huts are not nearly the most important thing about Scouts. Scouting is the most important thing in the early game and can make or break your game. Getting that City State money or the money from embassies early is huge, getting it late is pretty insignificant.
Really? 3 scouts? Is that really necessary? If going Tradition I'm going to want a worker after my 2nd scout and if gong Liberty I'm going to build a monument at that point.
If I
know I am going Liberty it is usually
because my scouting was so good. How would you know it is a good Liberty map if you have only scouted a little bit of the map? Granted, when I know I am going Liberty and I didn't get a Culture Ruin I will go Scout / Scout / Monument / Scout or Shrine / Shrine or Scout.
How often do you get one upgrade ruin? You don't want to keep scouting with your newly upgraded Archer, you want to bring it back. That's why I love 3 Scouts. Often times when I declare on an AI I will just keep my Scout around his lands "doing nothing" (spacebar) until I see a Caravan, Settler or Worker. It almost always pays off. But a Scout like that has to sit still. So I need the two others for Scouting.
Yeah but why do you need 3? Also, you can only declare on one CS to steal workers. After that you can't do it anymore if you want to have any gold and CS allies ever again.
That's not a problem though since you can easily steal multiple Workers from one City State. I've gotten up to four, though to be fair that is a once in every 1000 hours thing. Here's the trick:
If you see a CS Worker improving a ressource wait with your steal. Especially if it's a Lux/Strategic. Steal exactly on the turn the Worker finishes the tile and make sure you pillage. When you pillage, that gives the CS additional flavor to build another Worker asap (at least I think so, correct me if I'm wrong). Also, you know where that Worker is going first. In order to farm Workers you need a spot two tiles from said pillaged tile that is not visible to the CS (surrounded by Jungle, Forest, Hills). If all those conditions are fulfilled you can easily just park a Scout there after you stole the Worker and check every turn until the next one comes out. After you get the second Worker you either peace out or you rinse and repeat.
Furthermore I just wanted to add that I usually get 5 or more Huts and I've gotten up to 8, 9 or 10 quite a few times so it seems the # of Scouts does make a big difference. I always play standard/standard Pangea with 8 Civs 16 CS.
