Random SG 01 - The Randomness Begins

[Sir Bugsy]

Here is the world map as we know it.


Still too early to say what kind of land mass we have. The jungle isn't overwhelming.

Save is attached.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Oh, and the batting order:

Bugs <= just played
Eric the Great <= UP (play 15 turns)
Polus <= on deck (play 10 turns)
Optional
Teproc

 

[EricTheGreat12]

Ok. I'll double check the steps we'll go through but I'm already in bed here since its 10pm so I'll do it tomorrow.

Anybody want to clarify anything before I start tomorrow ?

 

[Polus]

Unfortunate that our scout couldn't pull through poor guy.

It certainly feels like Alex and we could be on a collision course. Having said that, I think it would be prudent to expand west to the yellow dot and perhaps use cheap settlers to fill in pink/red. For now though, I would continue our present course with a mind to arm up for an early-ish conflict.

 

[Teproc]

ALex won't be a problem if he has other neighbors, if we ever see an army heading our way e should be able to bribe him.

The good news is we have a lot of Gems around, the pantheon should be good if we get it. I think we should build a Shrine next, then a worker.

Yellow dot seems ok, a little close to the capital but lots of fresh water and two fish, pretty good.

Red dot I'm not a big fan of, I'd rather settle two tiles SE of it, get the cocoa, truffles and two fish. Then we'll have the option of settling another cit down south, but all that desert is not looking appealing despite the marble. The fish helps, but two won't be enough to sustain it I fear.

 

[Gurra09]

Nice first 15 turns! The landmass doesn't feel very Archipelago but we could still hope for Continents at least. Btw, I should be in there last in the play order, right? I know I haven't said much but I joined in a few pages back.

I like the pink dot for a city even though it's quite close to the capital. We already have a coastal capital so there's no need to rush for a coastal second city anyway, and if we want that Sugar now is the time to go for it before Alex gets there. And I agree with Teproc on the pantheon, there are three sources of Gems just around our capital and the possible city on pink or yellow dot. Then there's that fourth source down by the Barbarian camp if we build a city south later.

Also, Bugsy, do you have the saves for the other starts you rolled? I'm very interested in playing the Spain one myself.

 

[Teproc]

Ok. I'll double check the steps we'll go through but I'm already in bed here since its 10pm so I'll do it tomorrow.

Anybody want to clarify anything before I start tomorrow ?

Just to reiterate : I think we should build a shrine after the scout finishes. If we get the Gems pantheon, we'll have enough faith generation to get a strong religion.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Thanks Gurra. A senior moment.

Bugs <= just played
Eric the Great <= UP (play 15 turns)
Polus <= on deck (play 10 turns)
Optional
Teproc
Gurra

 

[Sir Bugsy]

We may want to consider replacing our late scout.

@ Gurra - I think we have a decent chance to have continents, small continents, or even large islands. We really don't know very much about the geography yet.

 

[EricTheGreat12]

We may want to consider replacing our late scout

Will do. I'll make hin explore up the norther area

 

[EricTheGreat12]

Sorry for the delay guys

Anyways, here's the stats:

Turn 16: Moved the warrior into the 'goody hut' next to the barbarian encampment. We received extra population in Jakarta.

Turn 17: Mining research is complete. Going towards Bronze Working so we can get the 'clear down jungle' option, but the next option should be and will be Archery. Adopted liberty so we can get forwards towards Collective Rule (Free Settler). Expanded westwards with the warrior

Turn 18: Warrior moves west and discovers Budapest so we end up receiving 30 gold as welcome tribute. Scout is finished so I send him up North so we can discover more territory near Alexander and I start work on the shrine

Turn 19:Send warrior next south west while Scout continues North

Turn 20:Send warrior more towards the South. While I am moving the Settler north I end up meeting the Austrians.

Turn 21:Warrior moves south again as we discover Ragusa and end up receiving another 30 coins. Settler moves north and we can notice that Alexander has a hoplite unit as well as a worker building up a resource.

Turn 22: Move the warrior south but we end up hitting a dead end so I'll be moving him up north again. Scout moves North as we discover another 'goody hut'

Turn 23: Scout finds 'map of surrounding area' within the ruins. Another 'goody hut' is spotted up North.

Turn 24:Considering that we still don't have Bronze Working yet so I decided to take Republic to speed up our production. Scout and Warrior continue on moving.

Turn 25:Move northwards with Scout by passing by Athens and unfortunately we have a barbarian on our tales. Production of shrine is over so we can start on focusing on the worker.

Turn 26: Moved scout away from barbarian while warrior continues exploration north west.

Turn 27: Bronze Working completed and Archery is chosen as the next technology. I'm still trying to get the Scout away enough so we can start healing it.

Turn 28: Moved warrior in same direction. As the scout moves North we can notice an Austrian city, but it doesn't seem like their capital. There is a chance that Maria Theresa is quickly expanding so we should be carefull

Turn 29:Barbarian keeps on following scout so we keep on moving him North. Warrior advances as usual.

Turn 30: Scout is stopped and put into healing mode. As the warrior moves forward we can notice that Austria has settled as pretty powerful empire so far. We should try to be friendly to her as possible because she seems to more of a threat than Alexander.

Ps: It seems that we are way behind in research, or are we okay for now ? Also, I took tons of screenshots but I put the most important ones. If you want more just tell me

That's it guys Hope I didn't mess up though

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Yes we are behind in techs.

Once we get archers, we need to focus on getting writing to get libraries and then the national college, so what's that in BNW - philosophy?

Looks like we are probably on a small continent with Maria T and Alex. I would have expected more civs by now if we were on a pangaea.

I think after the worker we get a military unit or two. I like to have an archer in the capital, but that's just me.

Somewhere in here we also need to get masonry so we can build the pyramids. Decisions, decisions.

Thoughts from the team?

Bugs
Eric the Great <= just played
Polus <= UP (play 10 turns)
Optional <= on deck
Teproc
Gurra

 

[Teproc]

Well yeah, we are way behind in tech because this is Immortal. We'll catch up around the Renaissance if things go right.

Looks like Small Continents to me, which is good. The fact that Austria is so close to Alex is also good, they'll probably fight.

I think we can research masonry next. Yes we need Writing but our next build in the capital won't be Libraries anyway, so I feel fine delaying it a bit. We're doing well on money, so we can also buy a library in the last city we found before NC if needed.

An Archer seems fine, it'll give us a chance to complete barb camp quests. How is our capital doing ?

 

[Optional]

Well played! Good scouting, we already know a fair bit of this continent.

I have a problem, though. I was mistaken when I said I had all DLC. I'm lacking Scrambled Nations. I haven't played Civ for 1 or 2 years, I forgot that pack even existed.
Although I did say the map packs should be disabled before rolling the saves. It can only cause trouble.

I'll not play in this SG. I thought about purchasing that pack now, but I don't want it. I would only then buy it for this SG, and to be honest, this SG is above my level. I don't know how to play a good game with this starting terrain. There's too little production, it slows things down, I would never catch up with the AI with this terrain. The luxury diversity is nice, but there are very few hills, stones or stable resources for pure hammers.
Remember, the last SG I played in had a similar start, we struggled for 200 turns and then abandoned the game. In hindsight, we should have dropped that save early and picked a better one. The core of our team then consisted of comfortable Deity players, but Immortal can be too tough for Deity players with a rough start. This is a rough start as well, and I wouldn't know how to come out with a win here.
I don't know if people are willing to consider a restart, probably that's not the first thing people want to do, but it's easier to make a restart now than after a 100 turns or so. Also it's not a map for Indonesia, it's a big continent, that's disappointing as well. You'll be missing your flavours.

Just some comments on the game:
In the dotmap yellow and pink are only 2 tiles apart, the game doesn't allow that, there needs to be a minimum of 3 tiles between towns. I would personally put yellow on the other side of the cow, 2 tiles west, and also put pink a tile west.
A scout doesn't really need to be killed by a single warrior. I believe it was put on the hill when wounded? That only gives 25% defense bonus, fortifying in place gives 40% defense bonus and heals 10 hitpoints. A warrior can then attack 2 more times and still won't have killed the scout and will nearly be dead himself. Then after 3 attacks insta-heal is available, if you don't trust the situation.

The AI being ahead is normal. They start with 3 bonus techs on Immortal; Sailing, Pottery and Mining. And they expand quicker, so they'll stay ahead for a while. Also for me it's normal that's it's Renaissance when I finally catch up. And then often there are still a few runaway civs that I'll never catch up with. Those AI's will only lose because they know nothing about win conditions.
It helps to pop a few techs and/or citizens in the beginning, for not falling too far behind.

 

[Teproc]

I'm not opposed to a restart for the DLC thing, we're not far into it anyway (though I don't think it's as bad as you think).

 

[Polus]

I'm fine either way, though I do share Optional's concerns (being not an Immortal player myself).

I will be available to play tonight (6PMish Central time) or tomorrow AM some time; if there's no definitive answer I'll just play my turn and we can decide after. Otherwise I'll just follow along with what everyone decides.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

With a dot map, the team isn't looking to settle all the dots, just one. By making a dot map it becomes easier to discuss each location quickly rather describing each location (tile 2W of eastern cocoa, tile 1E-1NE of gems).

I'm not a big fan of restarts or rerolls. I never restart. I consider it an exploit. As for a reroll, Optional will probably have to do that because it the only way to keep those civs out that he doesn't have and still keep things random. If we are going to reroll, I say we have to go with the first one he generates.

 

[Optional]

I certainly don't mind rolling a new start, but all that should be needed is unticking a few boxes before starting up the game, like this:



I have all the civs, I have all the game content. Those map packs don't even have game content, but if I haven't got those boxes ticked while they were ticked when the game was started up then the game refuses to upload.

 

[Optional]

I just went by what you said and rolled a start, otherwise we might be stalling a bit too much. Only one roll, everything random.
It turns out to be Dido. Ahem, I've played her before in an SG, but at least you guys haven't. A bit of a head scratcher, this one; where are the luxes? I'll upload this save anyway, there's a good chance the luxes are just hidden in the third ring, otherwise... There's a bug where sometimes your second lux doesn't get placed, I don't know if that's what's going on here. I didn't roll more than just once.

 

[Teproc]

Hm. That doesn't look great, we'll probably have to move the settler around a bit. Move the warrior SE first ?