SAM-02 Silliness and Mao

Well after we got practically everything to work in our favor in SAM-01 a few of us decided to give it another go. We're going to bump it up a notch (because we THINK we are capable). Currently it looks like a 50% retention ratio from SAM-01. Hopefully we attract a few newcomers to this game. Whosit requested a Terra map with the toroidal setting and Glare Seethe mentioned messing around with the climate. Opened the game hit Custom and made a few selections with a random leader. First roll and our leader is:



So we stay in Asia.

The Chinese UU:




and UB:



and the settings (pic from the second start so that we stay with Mao)



Start A:



Start B:



Start C:



Start D:



Start E:



Start D save:

*Laughs with Glee* Heehee. Y'know, if there was one leader I wanted to play next, it was Mao. Gotta follow in our Commie footsteps, y'know?

Agriculture and Mining are nice traits to start with, and the Unique Unit looks pretty good, what with that collateral damage. The Unique Building? Not so much. If I'm reading it right, it won't provide any culture on its own, so once monuments are obsolete, we'll need libraries for culture.

Start-wise, hmm, toughie. This rocky climate will make things tough, but all these sea food starts don't do us much good since we don't start with fishing. We might just have to make that a priority.

Start A: I'm crossing this one off. Even if we farm those grasslands, there's just not enough food to work those hills and I don't want to bet on something being in the back row of the BFC.

Start B: Possible. Wouldn't be bad once we got fishing boats out, and tons of forests to chop, but I'm not sure about long-term productive capacity.

Start C: I think I'm leaning to this right now. Couple clams are alright, cows are iffy, river is too darn short, but there seems to be a lake, so we may be able to do some farming. We get hills in the BFC, so we'll have some production here, once we get bronze-working, anyway.

Start D: Also possibly decent. I wish that second sheep was in the BFC, though. I think there are enough grasslands and hills in range to be a decent capital, and we do get some river to work with.

Start E: Not a fan.

And since we were talking about renaming our empire, I thought up a few ideas just for kicks.

The Arcadian Empire.
The Malingerian Empire.
The Joydaal Empire.

And then I'd figure out the, what, noun and adjective forms?

Also looking forward to new blood.

Id be interested in joining if you'd have me. Would consider myself a competent Mon/Emp player.

Welcome to the crew Mighty Dwaarf (not sure if being competent matters here )

Start vote: D-C-E-B-A
Reasoning for liking D over C. On this map I'm pretty sure we'll tech Hunting>Archery anyway so the deer is nice plus there seems to be plenty of water. We also (assuming we settle in place) have a 2 per turn capital from the plains hill and a possible second city site in view too. Start C also looks like there is water both below the cows and 1 tile E.

Ah, didn't notice that starting hill in D. Yeah, yeah, I think that might be the stronger spot after all. Just a shame that the sheep are on plains, but can't win 'em all.

New vote: D > C > E > B > A. Huh, same as Norvin's.

Regarding C, I've been learning to note bare patches in forests. Possible horse source?

I'm also interested to see how the Rocky script plays out. I've seen arid, but I'm not sure if the plains just represent our luck with starting position, or if it's part of the map script.

It's hard to tell since some tiles are still fogged out, but I think D has enough food to work everything, between the sheep, deer, and watered grasslands. I see at least 2 hills in the BFC. Well, I guess the start isn't confirmed yet, so I'll park here.

Ah, right, and welcome aboard, Mighty Dwaarf. Dwaaaarf. Sorry.

D>C>A>E>B

I always seem to do well playing Mao. If we do go with D I think Hunting > AH > BW is a good tech path, while building Warrior > Worker. With Expansive we'll get the worker out too quick to make any use of him with the above tech path (efficient use, I mean. He'll be able to camp the deer but don't think AH will be in soon enough to not waste worker turns) so a warrior first makes sense.

So it appears that D is already the winner. I'll post the save later for perusal. I'd say we wait and see if we pick up at least one more player before starting. We can determine a play order later (I recall Glare mentioning an inability to play until sometime next week) and see how it goes.

D it is then.

What are goals for victory?? Do we have any??

Either way I've always found Chokonu's can be very effective when gotten early enough especially in the crowded melee of Terra maps. We could always attempt the old Oracle-MC-GE Machinery trick?? This should also gain us an advantage in getting to astro quickly which is also a good thing on terra maps.

Well, I believe that all victory conditions are enabled. I don't think we're gunning for anything in particular, but personally, I would like to see the Conquest of the home continent. Settling for reality, we'll probably have to draw a few more cards before we can decide what strategy to run with.

I can't commit to build orders yet, either, but I agree that getting to Astronomy quickly would be nice. I've always liked building a sizeable colony on foreign shores.

Whosit said:

The Unique Building? Not so much. If I'm reading it right, it won't provide any culture on its own, so once monuments are obsolete, we'll need libraries for culture.

Click to expand...

Whosit, the Pavillion takes the place of the Theatre. Theatres give +3 only. Our UB gives the same +3 and an additional 25%! It could help us a lot on a tight map.

ps. Our goal for victory is to win! Win at all costs!

So how important is it to settle the other continent on Terra maps? To me it seems like it'd be better to focus on the home continent, i.e. taking over neighbors while they are busy settling the other continent. I mean they can have all the 3-pop undeveloped cities they want as long as we are taking their mature cities, I don't see how the other continent can really help them much. Since we're crowded on one half of a map I don't think it's unrealistic to eliminate or at least severely cripple 2-3 civs by the Renaissance. But I have never played Terra maps so I dunno. Also we are at Emperor so it won't be as easy as it'd be on Monarch.

Still, though. I guess my question is what's stopping us from playing this as regular Pangea?

Well, I've played a few Terra maps myself, so I can tell you this: The "New World" features resources not present in the "Old World." I think that generally all necessary Strategic Resources are present on both continents, but many happiness and health resources occur only in the New World. So, while it is possible to do without, grabbing strategic territory in the New World can offer advantages. It would also be possible to acquire strategic resources that may be missing in your Old World territory.

I mean, worst case, we could always settle some New World cities and fill 'em up with cottages, though there are often nice locations for production towns. It all depends on how well we're doing in the Old World, I suppose. Personally, I like Terra just 'cuz I enjoy the feel of settling new lands even after everything else is taken, but we could ignore that facet if we want, I suppose.

The start is in the original post guys. Let's take a look and talk about a play order.

Warrior 1N to check if moving the settler 1NW would bring in some useless water tiles into the BFC? It sucks settling off the plains hill, though. Maybe settler 1N would be better. Or just settle in place, really. The first game didn't make it to levees anyway, maybe this one won't either.

Definitely slot me in towards the end of the queue, Norvin.

Roster-wise, maybe put me second, unless everyone else is too busy. Doubt I could pick it up tomorrow, but Sunday is a possibility.

Hmm. Moving 1N does get the river, but as Glare mentioned, we may not get much use out of levees. Moving north loses the Deer in the capital's BFC, though. It's a tough choice. I guess we send the warrior north for a look see. Yeah, 1N to scope out the water. 1NE would see other useful stuff, but sight would be blocked by trees.

Really, though, I think I'd settle in place just to make the most of those bonus food resources. If we've got a rocky, plainsy continent, food will be precious.

I moved the warrior 1N as discussed.



I don't remember Glare's tech order but I was thinking AH>Hunting>BW. I agree with warrior first (or at least until size 2) and then worker. I think AH first only so that we work the tile with 1 first.

Roster wise I was thinking Me > Whosit > Mighty Dwaarf > Glare Seethe. Any objections?

Sounds good. Still hoping we get more players of course. Moving the warrior didn't reveal anything exciting as far as I can tell so voting to settle in place.

Hunting first would give us a discount on AH, I think. I don't know if that discount's big enough to justify going that route as opposed to being able to work the sheep earlier. That one commerce from the sheep is one beaker I guess but without knowing the discount on AH I've no idea if we end up saving beakers or not.

Good point on the discount. We probably will have both techs almost finished anyway by the time the worker is built.

Are you guys upon for another player?