SGOTM5 - Team Smackster

[mad-bax]

SGOTM5 - Russia. Game Thread Team Smackster.

Hi everyone, and welcome to the SGOTM5 Game thread.

Note: EVERYONE will have to install the correct resource graphics whether or not they have played SGOTM4.


Here is the start position.



Map Parameters
Playable Civ - Russia
World size - Large, 25% land give or take.
Difficulty Regent - but plays harder.
The map is handbuilt, and therefore may not have a standard configuration.

Here are a couple of links you might find useful.

The original GOTM23 Announcement.
The Constitution
The GOTM Reference Thread.
SGOTM5 Maintenance Thread

This Months' sponsored variant is OBCC - One Built City Conquest the rules for which are as follows.

1. You may never build a settler.
2. You must win by conquest victory condition.

[dmanakho]

Checking in!!!
MjM!!!

Welcome to the team. Best team in SGOTM league I should say

Tell us what on what level of difficulty you feel comfortable to play with and how good you are with micromanagement..

We have a certain Mr. Wotan in our team and I've been under fire quite few times for the luck of micromanagement skills.

Oh, and we also like to talk a lot. Should you know in addition to Gold and Green Laurels there is an unofficial Spam Laurel we are always after. Well, at least I am.

EDIT: Nobody ever mentioned it, but i take it for granted that we play variant, right?

[smackster]

Checking in, Variant for sure.

Only suggestions are scout to a mountain and if there is something, anything in view, follow it with the worker and settler. Alternative strat is to send each one to its own mountain and see what we have.

[smackster]

Roster

dmanahko (playing)
Tarkeel
smackster
Wotan
MjM

[dmanakho]

Am i starting the game????
I will have to call FBI witness protection program, i know you guys will want to kill me after my set of turns.

On a serious note. I suggest not to move neither settler nor worker but only scout. If we move them in to the wrong direction it will take an extra time to get them back. I will suggest to hop with scout on top of each mountain then post the map to the thread for team to discuss what to do next.

It will take total of 5 turns to get to each mountain top.
I am not worry about losing the turns from perspective of winning the game since it is only a regent. But i'd rather worry about competition teams.

Another suggestion. If we see any AI next to us we should settle as close to them as possible. This will help us to capture productive AI cities close to our capital. We can even do a nice early archer rush on regent.

[Wotan]

Good morning! OK so we are about to begin another of these adventures.

Originally Posted by dmanakho

We have a certain Mr. Wotan in our team and I've been under fire quite few times for the luck of micromanagement skills.

Don't scare MjM. I am just an old softy, really!!!

EDIT:
A few points: It is a "doctored" map so we might be in for a few surprises. Since "Mother Russia" is like the fairy tale version of it, icy tundra, we might end up with Moscow founded on a tundra tile, hopefully on a coastal river. So at least the sea tiles will give us 2 fpt and the river save us the cost of an aqueduct.

@Dmanakho. Take the Scout to one of the mountains, SE with a river next to it? If there is something nice there, move Settler and Worker in that direction. Do not wait for all mountains to be checked. Time might be a scarce commodity.

[dmanakho]

Will move scout to SE mountain and post the map for comments.

If you guys don't mind I'd like to see check-ins and comments on the map from Tarkeel and MJM (or at least wait until monday afternoon) before we start the game.

Tarkeel was MIA since Nov 15th, but hopefully he will show up... Looks like his school is killing him.

[Wotan]

@Dman, going slowly in the beginning is probably a good idea. A few maps w. discussions before finally founding our city.

BTW, since we will only build a single city in this game and Dman, AFAIK, is of Russian ancestry maybe you want to name the city to something else than the default: Moscow?

[smackster]

Agreed with the plan, move the scout SE to the mountain and post a map. I would hope that M-B would not make this map too lucky, meaning that I think we'll find equal land going to any of the three mountain. So if we see a sniff of anything green SE, then move the settler/worker that way.

[MjM]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

I also agree with moving the scout down SE as it has a river much more eventful then the rest of the land.

I play monarch usually but i can beat emperor so a regent variant seems to fit pretty good.

Also im having a problem , I opened up the Test save MB put out and dont see any animal resources.

MjM

[Wotan]

@MjM: You did DL the scenario pack and unpacked it in civ3ptw scenario folder? And the animal resource is visible in the test file named sgotm4 something also DLable from the same post as the scenariopack.

Edit: We are still missing Tarkeel. He said he would be back in this game but have not been online since the 16th. Shall we wait for him or should Dman start this baby off? We will be rather slow over the first few turns anyway and since it is still sunday for another 6 hours at my end we could be more or less online for opening moves etc.

[MjM]

I unpacked SGOTM resource - blips , SGOTM resource - plain , and SGOTM resource - blips and smiles all from SGOTM 5 into the scenario folder but still dont see it

edit: it as in the animal resources in the test save.
edit:edit: I think dmanakho should start playing now and maybe put tarkeel at the end of the roster and bump everyone else up?

[dmanakho]

Originally Posted by Wotan

Edit: We are still missing Tarkeel. He said he would be back in this game but have not been online since the 16th. Shall we wait for him or should Dman start this baby off?

He better be... Hi missed most of the past game.
@Smackster: Could you PM him?? That way he will get an e-mail and will know we are waiting.

Ok, here is the map after moving Scout to the SE mountain



On possible location for the capital is SE from the wheat. But we will have only 4 "green" tiles.

Originally Posted by Smackster

I would hope that M-B would not make this map too lucky, meaning that I think we'll find equal land going to any of the three mountain. So if we see a sniff of anything green SE, then move the settler/worker that way.

I do agree with you 100% on M-B map making.

I am thinking on what other teams are thinking right now... Most of them will probably scout everything around before moving. So I don't think we will lose much of a momentum in this game if we decide to hop on another mountain.
There is another river on the mountain to the east. And I bet there is also a mountain if we go further west...
One thing that concerns me is the map characteristics... It is a large map with only 25% of land mass... Could it be we are on tundra island alone???
Another thought... If we are not alone it would be better for us if we find out where the closest AI is and settle next to it. That way we won't need to do capital flipping and newly captured cities will be productive right away.
That means even if we've postponed building capital at the beginning we will be much better off in a long run comparing to other teams.
Remember, we can't use leaders to rush wonders, including a palace. We will probably have to move our palace later this game to where the land and environment is better

So... I do not advocate running with scout like crazy but i suggest to
do one more mountain hop so we can at least choose between going in 2 different directions.


EDIT: Actually this is what i'd like to do
1st turn. Scout moves straight north to the forest tile. Worker goes one tile west.
2nd turn: Scout moves on top of northern mountain, workers on top of east.
That way we will know all the surroundings in just 2 turns and can make a final decision on where to move settler.

Originally Posted by Wotan

BTW, since we will only build a single city in this game and Dman, AFAIK, is of Russian ancestry maybe you want to name the city to something else than the default: Moscow?

You are correct, i am of russian ancestry, but i wasn't even born in Russia, neither i lived there... I was born and lived in Azerbajian before moving to US.
Anyways, Moscow is fine for me as the name for the capital.

[MjM]

If you want to do a 2nd mountain hop then go to the one E E NW I also think we should settle near an AI so we can capture their cities and our troops wont have to go as far.

[smackster]

I think that is a good enough start, so send the worker/settler down there, remember this is only a temporary home, we will palace jump as soon as we capture an AI capital.

Agree with MjM that we move our scout to that mountain to the east.

[MjM]

If we do settle by the wheat we should make a few more scouts to find the AI civ as soon as possible (if there is one )

[dmanakho]

Originally Posted by smackster

I think that is a good enough start, so send the worker/settler down there, remember this is only a temporary home, we will palace jump as soon as we capture an AI capital.

Agree with MjM that we move our scout to that mountain to the east.

How strong do you feel about it???
I'd really feel like using next 2 turns looking at what else we have around those mountains before moving a settler. It's a gambit but it can make a big difference in our game.

[mad-bax]

I may have screwed up the test save. I think the one you are trying is for SGOTM4 and so looks in the SGOTM4 folder instead of SGOTM5.

Try this one instead. You should see goats to the NE

New test save.

[Wotan]

I agree with Smackster, move Settler/Worker towards Wheat. Make sure any City is placed on a tundra tile with with access to both river and open sea/ocean. The Scout might be best to move E/SE first and the NE/NE onto mountain. We can just as well use all four MPs.

By the look of things right now we seem to move towards a peninsula. Sending the Worker as I suggest might help us a bit to establish this. The tiles SE and SW of the Wheat is possible places to settle in, the SE if it is on shoreline. Just follow the river to see what is revealed.

[MjM]

The test save works thanks Mad-bax