Joe-01

1. JesusOnEez
2. Perplexity
3. goreamon
4. temmage
5. vovan


Hi all,

Being a noober at Civ generally (well not so much "noober" as "crap"), I'm wanting to start a game for other noobers primarily, plus one or two expereinced players to correct mistakes and whom we can learn off. Here's the game. I personally haven't figured out the best way of doing a mostly naval Conquest or Domination victory and want to explore this aim with some others;

Civ: England with Elizabeth (subject to approval)
Map: Archipal...archpyl...er...lots of islands
Size: Standard
Climte: Temperate
Sealevel: Normal
Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Shoreline: Random
*EDIT* Difficulty: Noble

Options: Left alone
Victory Conditions: Conquest, Domination

AI: 7 Random Civs

Strategy:
I guess we need to Galleys ASAP and start exploring to find resources. We need to decided whether to go for Domination or Conquest. I guess domination will be easier if we have a lot of money to spend on keeping people happy...if not Conquest would be the way to go.

Anyone interested?

Steve

Eh, difficulty?

Edit: I saw the difficulty listed on the SG sticky threat. You should include that in the post. I'm more of a Prince level player although I wouldnt call myself experienced just yet. But I'm interested in joining.

Coolio, I'll pop you on!

I'd be interested.

Consider yourself added to the list.

I would like to play -- first SG, but lots of experience crushing Noble.

If there's space add me I'm a developing monarch player but have very little experience with archipelago settings (all my wins were on standard continents). I do have some ideas about what should be done with a civ like Elizabeth though as I've won with her a few times.

goraemon and Perplexity are both added. Perfect mix of noober and people with a bit more experience...just what I was after. When I get home tonight I'll set the game up and post initial pre-turn screenshot so we can have a quick discussion on opening tactics before I start.

I'd also suggest that one of the more experienced players starts the game (I'll post the pre-turn save here) so we don't get off on the wrong foot from the off...goraemon seems a good choice due to his experience with the English...

I suggest that the standard 24/48 hour rules are applied (not strictly...everyone has life stuff crop up).

Any ideas on turn times? How does 20 to start off sound, then 15 a piece until things start hotting up...turns will be long when the navy gets bigger...

Steve

Sounds great.

I'm not sure if you are set on Elizabeth or what -- if you aren't, I'd prefer someone else. I've played as Liz way more than anyone else, getting sick of it.

How about Washington/Roosevelt, maybe? Navy SEAL is the only remotely navy-related unique unit. I think it would come in handy, especially since we are limiting ourselves to conquest/domination.

Perplexity said:

I'm not sure if you are set on Elizabeth or what -- if you aren't, I'd prefer someone else. I've played as Liz way more than anyone else, getting sick of it.

Click to expand...

Reading up, the Americans seems a good idea with their UU coming later in the game. Plus they have the financial trait (if we go with Washington) Plus building the lighthouse for half price with the organised trait will help with commerce, especially on a water heavy map.

I'm happy to go with Washington...

...I'll assume everyone else is and post our start screen for some pre-start tactics.

See enclosed for start position...

Looks pretty good with plenty of mining opportunity. Reasonable food and reasonable commerce. Coastal (no suprise on this type of map). Plenty of gold in the area as well.

Elephants not too far away if we fancy conquering someone fairly early...might be an opportunity to take out any early leaders, especially if they're close to us.

Thoughts and suggestions on the starting strat as I usually naff things up from the start!

Steve

Starting spot doesn't look very attractive. Need to make room for a city on the west coat. There's a few things I'm having trouble making out in the screenshot... is the square NE of settler (with 9/PgUp) a coastal plains/hill? If so it looks like the right site to me. Then a west coast city on either the middle or the lower of the 3 western coast tiles, with 1 or 0 tiles of overlap. Hopefully there is land SE of the jungle, 2 squares below the lake -- that would reach the gold and have 0 overlap with my proposed capital. Overlap of 0 or 1 with the west coast.

I just had a good zoom in and the 9/PgUp tile is a coastal tile (could just make out waves splashing up to it). I agree with your initial city placement after some more thought.

I'll wait for some more thought from the other players through tomorrow and start the game tomorrow evening.

Is the computer suggesting that we actually settle directly on the cow resource? Maybe not. Anyway, if we move NE that's one turn wasted, and we're kind of taking a gambit that there may be an ocean resource there to make up for the likely decrease in workable grassland tiles. The only thing that's holding me back from recommending a settlement on the spot is the significant encroachment of land regarding the potential city site towards the SW which, given the ivory and possible other resources, is probably a desirable spot for another city at some point. The preferable 2nd city spot is by the gold mine though as it really helps with research early game.

I'd be willing to risk a turn and explore NE in hopes of finding some other resources. And use some "intelligent settler chopping" to expand..speaking of which, what techs does Washington start with again?

Overall, starting spot doesn't look bad to me at all. We've got hills, grassland, forests, 2 or more resources (perfectly balanced between food and commerce to boot), and fresh water. And I mean...2 visible gold mines already...how can you not love that..{drool}

20 turns to begin, then 15 for a set of rounds each, then probably to 10 or something like that sounds good to me. I assume we haven't decided on the order of players yet. Personally I'll go first, middle, last, doesn't matter in the slightest.

I think we should just settle where we are. It isn't the greatest starting areas, but there are some advanatages to settling there. Firstly the hill for +25% defence. Secondly, we have freshwater, freshwater = early farms. It also means extra gold for us, being a financial civ. The fact that we have two gold resources is excellent considering Washington is arguably the best civ moneymaker.
We can always use cultural border expansion to grab both the Ivory and the Gold slightly later on.

America starts with Agriculture and Fishing, so we can go for Animal Husbandry straight off the bat, with a quick stop off at The Wheel of course

The main reason to move NE is to make room for a west coast city. If we settle on the spot, it would be way more overlap than I like.

It seems to me that maximizing tile usage is especially important for the starting island of an archi map.

All IMHO.

I definitely agree with perplexity. Although it is a lost turn, I think the new location NE would be better in the longer run. Yes, it does have access to fresh water and decent resources but moving it would give us room for two cities. Considering that we are playing a water map, we should maximize the limited land space that we have available.

I think we should also discuss some of our short term goals. IMHO, I think we should work towards having strong commerce cities and tech towards optics after which we can then consider what type of victory we would like.

Woot, another SG is about to begin!

EDIT: The computer's recommended location is...stupid, to be blunt. Why do we want our first and probably primary city to be landlocked? It is, after all, a water map.

The computer occasionally knows where hidden resources are, either stuff that is currently unexplored, or something that will show up later (Horses, Iron, Oil, etc.).

As for short term goals, we definately want to get big on research early. Lots of cottages and work the water tiles. And work that gold mine early, all that extra commerce is great.

Great lighthouse and colossus will help us really surge ahead and keep our edge. If we're to get any early wonders, it's these two.

I'm still ambivalent regarding the starting position, but since this is noble, it's more forgivable to take a chance and delay settlement by 1-2 turns (just hope the revealed terrain to the east isn't total crap). Generally speaking, the generator has worked hard to get us a well-balanced spot and I'd surmise 80-90% of the time it's the right place to settle.

I agree that the generator almost always puts you on a good starting spot. And of course the starting spot would be a great city site -- probably better than NE. HOWEVER, we can't just consider the capital alone. Our capital will be almost as strong if it's built one NE -- and we'll have another excellent city on the west coast, one which wouldn't be as strong if we built the capital on the starting point.

Anyway. Looking forward to getting going.