We need to hold postings to nothing past the 2590 (turn 30 date) until we get the main crew up to that date. (probably will move forward on Friday 11/15).
In the interim, here is a composite image to reflect the basic positions at the end of 3450bc as they are reflected in the save files.
Note: that Lee(LKendter)'s position is not actually reflected in the image since he came in a tad later and jumped right to the second save point. No problem.
This composite image is really an outline composite so it does not necessarily reflect the position of your town, improvements, or worker.
The first point I would make is that only two people chose to move their settler and found the capital in another position. We can discuss this more after the rest of the players get their saves uploaded through the 2590bc (turn 30) time point. I will post a summary status message sometime later this evening (Thursday 11/14) an this will include an announcement that "Discussion is Open" so that everyone will be encouraged to actively discuss things for at least the next 24 hours before we play on.
The second point that is not obvious in the composite is that people chose two major sequences of worker tasks that put them into either the "Mined the Wheat" or the "Irrigated the Wheat" groups. This should also be a topic of discussion (later) but I wanted to highlight this difference with the posting of this composite image.
Each player has been following somewhat of a different sequence of moves and that is great because it reflects how many different things can happen in the game even when we all start with the same cards dealt to us.
We can group the choices into some major groups and this will help move the discussion along in a more productive manner because the big picture decisions are what we really need to be focusing on instead of the tiny issues.
The third major point is that we end up with two groups of players with one group producing a warrior (or warriors) to "get out of town" and find ou more about the world. The other group went instantly toward internal build issues without pushing the exploration.
In the group of players that sent out a warrior to explore the map, we can again divide these choices by the major directions of exploration. Most players went sort of north initially and many of these players used the mountain ridge to get the widest view of their world. WIthout focusing on the discussion of these choices yet, I need to emphasize the different paths chosen because it is a bit tough to show them on the composite image clearly:
- stwils was the only play who went directly northwest, virtually in a straight line from Persepolis to his position shown in the composite.
- Lee(LKendter)'s moves are not shown on the composite but he had moved his town 1 square northwest to found and then sent his warrior explorer straight north to the hut and then through the ridge to the central mountain to the north
- handandy did not produce a unit to explore
- all the other players basically crossed the river at the wheat and followed the mountain ridge north until they could choose an east or north path
Players Borealis, LKendter (not shown on image), Jamesds, and Jaxom, have already popped the hut directly north of Persepolis while stwils hasn't seen it, cracker bypassed it, and Padma is eyeing it with passionate intent.
Only Jaxom and James have second warriors out to explore more territory.
Thinking a head to the discussion, a comparison of the position of stwills and James1 will reveal a very important game play concept the relates to speedin gup exploration and using the orthogonal grid layout that is built into the game. We can discuss this when the discussion period opens later this evening.
All in all, it is very enlightening to look at this sort of composite overlay and try to understand the reasons for the common things that people decided to do.
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A couple of process related notes to emphasize:
This game format is really a bit introspective in how it needs to be played. We can discuss many things when we get to the discussion breaks, but it may be best if we avoid too much forward discussion like projecting city layouts and longterm map plans because this may be your strategy but it may not match the strategy of other players. It is hard to play the game and test your decisons against the similar decisions of others when the discussion of what to do occurs before you have a chance to really commit yourself to the decision you would make without all the extra guidance and information. If I told you exactly what the optimium movement strategy was (not that I know it) then you would not be crafting the same well hone set of decision skills that really will let you play the game more in your own style and to the level of enjoyment that you personally seek.
Also, posting images is good, but we need to be concious of image file size as we get lots of those going. Some of the graphics modpacks have changes to resources that make them really hard to see on clearly on sized web images, so use caution.
Think ahead to the issues you really want to discuss for the first 30 turns as well as any question you think the group should address before moving on, and -
... continued good luck to all players.