RB12 - Roadkill

[xenikos]

RB 12 - Roadkill (or, "Now I Really Can't Drive 55")

Difficulty: Prince
Map Script: Archipelago/Archipelago
Speed: Normal
Size: Standard
Civ: Spanish (Isabella)

Variant Rules: At no point in time may we construct roads or railroads.
Victory: Any

Roster

Xenikos
Zed-F
Perplexity
Maksim
Torello



Here is the start that I rolled - not what I expected to get, with a river (albeit tiny) and a wheat, but no sea resources. I like this start because it presents us with an interesting decision to make. If we ever want to use that wheat as a resource, then we're going to have to found a city right on top of it. Since we're not likely to run into a usable wheat square again, that sounds like a good option. It doesn't look like a great starting city location, however, so that would mean we're going to have to move our first settler 1E or 1SE. We know there's going to be a resource just off to the east, and I'd rather settle on the river for added health bonus - so I think 1E is the best option.

I'm going to wait to play until everyone chimes in (to make sure everyone knows the game has started!). The tentative plan is to start with Meditation, and what resource to the east is available will determine the first moves production wise.

[ticktockclok]

Err, yeah. I bid you good luck. I can play on prince, but don't see how you can go too far with this game . I'd assume building on resources, and all coast/river cities, but it seems essentially impossible. You'll probably need good relations w/ neighbors to get resources, i suppose...

Well, hope you do well. I'll lurk around to see how it goes.

[Maksim]

So the corn, connected by the sea, but not having a road on its own square, will not be considered active?

Hmm... This makes it more difficult than I thought. Oh well, part of the fun, and all that!

Question - if we do go conquering, do we need to pillage all the roads? I ask because I don't think one can choose what to pillage, and it seemed that the roads were the last thing to be destroyed. Also, I'm not sure we can pillage in our own lands.

[xenikos]

Yeah, in this instance the corn can only be made active if we settle a city on it...since that city would be on the ocean, then it'd trade the resource. And that's why I'm going to move the settler one east to start.

Keeping roads that we capture from other civs is fine - which means we'll probably be hunting for things we need.

[Maksim]

In that case, I'd suggest going for Bronze-Iron Working soon after Meditation. If either bronze or iron is found on coast, we need to build a city on it ASAP.

It would probably be best to avoid building cities away from coast - if there are any such tiles on this map!

[Zed-F]

Checking in. I agree that moving east and looking for fish sounds like a good idea. Are you sure that the tile to the SE doesn't have fresh water? If so I'd go there first to explore more of the sea. We'll probably want to preserve those forests so we have some way to get some shields going, but if we do find a couple fish I foresee lots of whipping in the future -- another reason to go for an early Bronze Working.

[xenikos]

Yeah, only the two squares on the left and right of that stub of a river have fresh water. I think we're guaranteed a second resource within the limits of the initial starting spot, which means we'll still have it once we're one east. We might be somewhat production poor, but we have at least two grassland hills. I'll play the first 25 turns this evening, then Zed can do 20, then the other two 15 (then we'll go to 10 per person of course)

[BeefontheBone]

Originally Posted by xenikos

Yeah, only the two squares on the left and right of that stub of a river have fresh water. I think we're guaranteed a second resource within the limits of the initial starting spot, which means we'll still have it once we're one east.

Lurker's comment: Unless of course it's not currently visible and is in the west - a horse or some iron or something.

[Perplexity]

Checking in. Looking forward to this game.

[Torello]

I'd like to join, still need one more?

[xenikos]

Sure. Torello makes five, and that fills us up. I'll have the first set up tonight.

[=|VA|=Lawman]

Im going to say this now, (hopes he dosn't get flamed) you guys must be slightly insane to do this.
Good luck.

[xenikos]

Hah - nah, no flaming. I don't think it will be quite that bad...but we'll see!

[Sirian]

Choosing Archipelago for this variant is mean! No rivers to speak of.

Of course, more resources on the coast, and all cities can be on the coast to connect to trade network, so maybe that's for the best. If the variant flies, would be interesting to see it tried on Great Plains.


- Sirian

[xenikos]

Ok, let's see what happens. I was in the thick of Adventure 3, and it was real real tough to put that one down for the night...but I wanted to get us started here.

4000BC. Warrior moves 1N, while the settler moves 1E. Here's what it looks like now:


3960 - Madrid founded.


Ouch. It is sugar to the east, which in our situation would have been much better to settle on than just work as a tile. In hindsight the initial start is somewhat better - ah well, nothing ventured....
I start research on Meditation for Buddhism, and I start production on...a work boat. There is literally nothing for a worker to do for some turns yet, so no reason to hinder our initial growth by starting with that. On this island I doubt we're going to need military for a little while either - but we sure do need naval exploration to figure out which way to head. Warrior goes off north to see what lies there.
3920 - There's a hut to the northeast on a desert hill.
3840 - We pop the hut:

Hey, not bad! I was half certain that it would be the wheel to pop first, just to mock our silly project.

3760 - Madrid's borders expand, as our warrior finds the first resource to the north: stone! Should we settle there for some early wonders? Let's check out the surrounding area.


3560 -

The Spanish learn how to like, totally zen. Chill. Nothing to irrigate at the moment, and while we need sailing, we can wait a few turns for it - but mining will help our capital out with some of the projects to come, so I start on that.

3400 - Workboat finishes. I send it to start exploring the coast to the southeast, and start on a settler (we have a bit before real barbs show up, so I think we can delay a 2nd warrior a tad longer)

3280 - Mining finishes, and I start research on sailing.
3040 - Hinduism is FIDL (FiaDL? FIaDL? Fido? eh, you know what I mean)

During this whole period: Warrior has been pushing on north and has found: another small river, wheat, and deer! Then he finds north end of island, with a fish resource to the east (finally). Warrior comes back to middle of the island to escort settler when it is done. Fishing boat makes a tour of the southeast island to find more sugar (one we can land on!), two clams. Then heads to the island to the west. Pictures will be below.

2960 - Uh-oh, borders on the west island. Looks like we have a close neighbour.


2920 - Yep, we make contact with Elizabeth

2800 - Sailing finishes, start on Masonry (but as this was just started, it can be switched on the next turn without any penalty if you decide, Zed)

[xenikos]

Pictures of our surroundings:

just to the north:


further north


southeast


Dotmaps:

Well, I don't actually like dots...they have so little personality! So I use 80s celebrities to mark my city planning:







here's the early game strategy I've worked up:

I think current settler should go to Gary Coleman, to get the stone. I have a tendancy to be too wonder-shy in the early game, and I'm trying to remedy that....so I cooked up the audacious plan that we should try for stonehenge and the Pyramids. Stonehenge is obvious - we need cultural expansion in the production-starved cities we'll be building, plus it nets us a shrine for our religion. The Pyramids would be more of a reach, but it would give us a high happiness ceiling via Representation. Voltron is the 2nd spot I think we should settle - it doesn't grab either resource as a tradable one, but it gives us a city with two good health resources that can be a good whipping post/settler factory. 3rd should be Mr T in the southeast - settling on that sugar gives us a much needed happiness luxury, and also has a clam and good land squares. John Stamos (which, concidentally enough is Inuit for "fishing villiage") can come later. Also, a city either on the wheat next to the capital, or on the desert next to it (I'm leaning towards the latter).

Edit: In case it is not obvious, the Voltron square is just plains, and the J. Stamos square is just tundra

So for that crazy strategy (and I might be biting off more than I can chew here), the production order in Madrid would look like: settler (current) - warrior - Stonehenge - worker - settler? - Pyramids

Does this make any sense or have I gone crazy? I can't tell anymore - what's everyone's imput?

(Normally I'd crop my pictures better, but I'm in somewhat of a rush)

Ok, Zed-F is up for 20 turns, Perplexy on deck.Attachment 112409

[Maksim]

Mr. T is a good spot.

Gary Coleman sucks. We have no high-food locations there, so it can use grassland (farmed), and then three forests before being stuck. A total of seven shields until lumbermills. It can grow to be a fishing village, though.

The top two cities I'm unsure about. Chances are, by the time we produce settlers for those, we might find some better land. Also, don't forget about getting Bronze/Iron - these we need ASAP, as they should determine the dotmap to a far greater extent in our variant.

Where is it more likely that Iron/Bronze will pop up? I would guess it's our island rather than Mr. T but I don't really know the map scripts that well.

---

Stonehenge is good, Pyramids I'm not so sure about. I kind of think that the Pyramids are the antithesis of the religion route in this game - the latter can potentially get you +2 happy faces across your whole empire, the former gives you +3. Since we already established Buddhism, I'd much rather get us our Shrine, and spend the effort on building missionaries.

Also, the Pyramids would kill our expansion - we could build what, three-four settlers with archer escorts in the meantime?

[xenikos]

Re: Maksim -

You're right, while the pyramids would remove a lot of the happiness barrier in the mid-game, this is only prince, so we should be able to manage...so growth is more important. I was getting caught up in ways to work that stone!

GC isn't a fabulous city spot, no, but with those river squares and fishing...it will be useful. And we need to double our stonehenge speed so we can get another settler/archer/galley out soon. I think Voltron is a clear #3 - it will have the most food of any of the currently available starting locations, and we need to settle our island before the English do it for us!

I have no idea where bronze or iron will appear - if we get neither I won't be too worried. The AI isn't too smart about naval warfare, so that plus longbows would be a more than adequate line of defense. It would just delay our ability to pick off a few AI resource cities for awhile...

I am officially up way too late.

[ChrTh]

lurker's comment:

Can I buy some off you guys?

...seriously, short of modding, is there a setting that guarantees more rivers in a random map? I'm thinking of trying a similar game on my own.

Thanks

[Zed-F]

The thing about fishing villages is, you need food to be able to grow, and you need to grow to be able to whip. Where are all our seafood resources!?! There don't seem to be very many on the map. I count 3 in the pics above. That sucks.

I'll try and get this tonight.