TH2 high seas archipeliago tropics emperor

OK, the last game is in the mop up phase and turned out to be a bit of a pushover, so we'll bump up the difficulty and -- as Sengir suggested -- go with a random civ. Same world set up as last time:



HighSeas2a leader/civ:



HighSeas2a start:



HighSeas2b leader/civ:



HighSeas2b start:



HighSeas2c leader/civ:



HighSeas2c start:



HighSeas2d leader/civ:



HighSeas2d start:



HighSeas2e leader/civ:



HighSeas2e start:



You may notice a gap in the screenie numbering between set up and save "a", that's because I rolled a nice start for the Koreans, took screenies, and forgot to save the fricking thing.

Some guidelines for the game follow. If you're going to play please do read them, but they're really just meant as reminders:



Roster and rotation:

Sengir
nocho
Arlborn
Loki
Dave Hartwick
Whosit

Checking in. Always wanted to say that!

At first sight I have no clear preference yet as to the starts and leaders, other than that Gilga's start appeals to me least. They all have their pros and cons I suppose. Will say something slightly more substantial later .

I'll pass on this one - April is going to be too busy for multiple SGs.

Checking in

I gotta vote for 2A, the start is good(settle in place), plains hill, silver on start, production heavy capital, but looks like we gonna be on a tundra isle so we will have plenty of island hopping.

Start 2B also looks good, but Financial Expansive seems tooo good for isolated, we can easily deal with happy with HR, and expansive will help health, and financial is simply king. That being said I would settle 1S for fresh water + plains hill bonus.

Start 2E is a close third for me, as the nearby stone would allow for some experimentation with early wonderspamming... however I think GLH is more important than mids/GW/Stonehenge combined.

Mainly reasons I am avoiding C-E is they are too food heavy and there are plenty food heavy locations on these maps we have found, but very few production heavy so those would be helpful. Pacal is kinda game breaking, but ZY is helpful but by no means broken (well organized to help with GLH is erm awesome, and cheap lighthouses + courthouses coupled with creative for border pops are insane as granary-lighthouse-courthouse-barracks(later in the game, but long live the draft) will be all we need in most cities... okay maybe he is a little broken too

That's all right, dual, I don't know how people play several SGs at the same time anyway. I wouldn't have any time for regular games. Thanks for playing the other one.

About the starts, I like 2e the best. I especially like the stone because it might lead to a different opening -- well, a different opening than the last SG, but more similar to how I usually play, with early representation. Shaka's aggressive trait will be helpful for a gunpowder offensive and expansive has good building discounts. His UB is on Loki's basic build list, too, and gives a maintenance bonus. The UU probably won't see any use. There's enough forest around to help the capital city get TGL.

2a's latitude, coastline to the east, and low visible food are a worry. Two silvers rock, though, and Zara's traits are good as Loki pointed out. I've read good things about the UU (mainly that the promotions stay when you upgrade) and no doubt it can be drafted, which fits last game's strategy. The UB seems wasted on a creative leader.

2b doesn't have much food visible but does have hammers, and Pascal's traits are very good. I think Liq will be disappointed in us if we take him. Maybe we can rule it out.

2c, again, not much food but plenty of hammers with 5 green hills. At least the corn can be irrigated right away. Dye's good. I like industrious as a trait but haven't figured out how to get a lot of use out of spiritual. I'd rank this start low, but not as low as...

2d. On the plus side, creative and an early courthouse. On the minus, it looks cold and plains livestock aren't that good. I'd like to rule this one out, too.

2a - Looks like a very strong early start, with good production, commerce and food. Can hardly be better for quick early research. Zara always seems to be doing well in my games and indeed his traits are good. UB is near worthless if we don't go for a cultural victory, UU is quite good with the upgraded musketman. Island may be quite small.

2b - Pacal is pretty strong (or broken as Loki sees it), being financial and expansive. Corn is a nice resource and something else will probably show up. Would indeed settle 1S. May have more land at his disposal.

2c - I'm never too wild about calendar resources in the capital. But corn, some hills and eventual commerce from the dyes make it ok. Don't know if industious helps much, we've seen that we only need TGLH anyway . Possibly reasonable land although you never know on these maps.

2d - 2 sheep are a bit subpar imo. Protective as always is a weak trait and more so on this map type. Creative is ok though.

2e - Very food heavy. I never played as Shaka, but his traits are not bad. I see that his UB is a barracks that reduces maintenance, which might be quite good. Don't know if I see it correclty, but we might be looking at the whole island.

Vote would be 2b, 2a, 2c, 2e, 2d. I can accept though if we don't want financial again, although we may see that as compensation for stepping up a level .

Checking in.

I must say that I don't have a preference for which start to play, all have their plusses and minuses. That said, here's my opinion about them anyway

A) Leader is decent enough: creative means we can have border pops without having to build anything first, meaning cities will get up and running faster (as seen last game, sometimes it takes forever to get the monument and the border pop, as some islands don't contain shields and forests). Draftable UU is a plus as well. Production heavy capital site, though the island seems small and is way up north (also, is the corn on fresh water? I never can tell how that works on the end of the river, will be irrigated at CS though, as long as we settle in place).

B) Nice traits and a fairly decently sized island from the looks of it. Strong start indeed. Probably move settler 1S for corn irrigation on CS and the extra hammer.

C) I like playing Spiritual civs, though one of it's advantages is lessened in isolated games (switching to civics/religion on demand). Still, it's a strong trait and Industrious is nice as well. Island seems to have room for a couple more cities then we had last time around.

D) As said, Expansive is nice, as is the Ziggurat. Island is in the extreme south though and the capital site doesn't look overwhelmingly strong to me.

E) Ah, Shaka. Playing him means we don't run into him early . Also his UB is nice, especially for island hopping (less maintaince is always nice). Decent starting location, but the island looks small @nocho: it looks like there's at least one more tile south of the Rice, but I'm not completely sure. Settling in place, we should be able to place three cities on the island (and stronger then last time).



Also:
How did you manage to get 4 archipelago high seas maps without seafood?

Sengir said:

How did you manage to get 4 archipelago high seas maps without seafood?

Click to expand...

Was wondering about that too!

Yeah, I do think as well the Shaka start has some more tiles in the south and of course one (or) more in the west, I referred to it more as it probably being a smallish island as well.

I am a bit confused about this corn irrigation thing. I've seen more talk on this forum about possibly not being able to irrigate it, but I sincerely cannot remember ever having been unable to irrigate a corn wherever it was. Can't have been lucky all the time... For instance in this other SG I'm playing there's a corn (center north in the picture) without fresh water nearby and the city next to it is without it as well, but it's still irrigated. What am I missing here? By the tile yield I think Zara's corn is not on a river by the way.

In what order do you rate these starts by the way, Sengir? I know you said you didn't have preferences but we must all speak out .

Ah well, fair enough.
2c, 2b, 2a, 2e, 2d


About the Corn:
You can farm it without a problem (provided you have researched Agriculture of course). The point is, that when the cornfarm is not connected to fresh water (directly before CS or chain irrigated after), it produces 1 less food.

Of course I am, I wouldn't want to lose it!


Now, 2e!!!!!!! That is it.

I am also up for 2a though. It looks like fun.

Dave Hartwick said:

Roster:

Dave Hartwick
Loki Strikes
nocho
Sengir

Arlborn, silk, and dualmaster all have a slot reserved if they choose to take it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the consideration, but I'm going to do the same as dual and bow out of this one. Having just been in three SG's - the time demands were a bit much for me to continue with that many. I'd like to have spent a little more time on my reports with some screen shots - but I just couldn't swing it. And with longer days here and marathon training and better biking weather, I'll be playing less Civ in general.

Have fun storming the castle!

OK silk, enjoy the weather. It's getting nice here, too, as in not boiling hot every day.

You're on deck in our other SG, by the way. Arlborn should have his save posted soon.

2E's advantages are outweighed in my mind because it looks like a typical food rich capital and nothign too exciting, 2A is something that strikes me as rare and slightly challenging, however ZY will really help it (can't believe forgot to mention oromos in my advocacy of start 2A), 2B is no doubt the strongest, but it will be WAYYYYYYYY to easy with fin + expansive and the start, so I belive a revision of my votes is in order as I would like to see a semi challenging game

2A(who knows what will happen and I for one want to see super oromo drill power), 2E (solid start, if we play well and no AI goes insane, should be winnable), 2B(would have to try very hard to lose it)

Here's how I see the voting. I only averaged for votes I was sure about. 2b is in the lead, but everybody seems comfortable taking 2a. If Arlborn rates 2b a 5, 2a would be the winner by .2.

I went ahead and randomized for the play order and Sengir won, making the rotation as follows:

Sengir
nocho
Arlborn
Loki
Dave

You get to name the team for the game, Sengir.

Hey, I voted 2e and 2d in ohter order! Not that it matters that much, it makes 2d even more dead last though 2e climbs to 3rd place with 2.6 points just overtaking 2c...

I'd say let's go ahead and take 2a. Despite the scoring I think it has the most consensus, with you wanting to rule 2b out in the first place and Loki saying the mayor challenge would be to lose from such a strong leader and start .

Everybody happy with 5 on the roster or should we leave a spot open for an aspiring individual? I'm fine either way.

I'd say leave the spot open.

Will start the game this evening, provided I get a save off course.

What do we want as techpath?
Agri > AH > Sailing > Masonry > BW
Or something similar, BW can be delayed until after Masonry, we aren't that food heavy this time and this way we will still have it in time for chops for the GLH (if we are going for that. If we don't, then a completely different techpath may make more sense.)

Techpath looks fine to me, although don't we need fishing for sailing? Of course I'd like to have GLH if we can, we have seen how strong it is! With two silver mines early research will be a breeze.

Uhm, yeah, Fishing is kinda needed. So it will be Agri > AH > Fishing > Sailing > Masonry.

Guys, I hate to say it but I screwed up again and lost the save. We'll have to pick all over again.

Wait, there it is.

Tech path sounds fine but I'd like to get a settler out this time prior to starting the Great Lighthouse, if that's achievable.

I'll leave a slot open for another player and advertise the game in the registration thread.

Getting a settler out should be possible I think, will play soon.