Secretary of War - Early Exploration

[Donovan Zoi]

People of our unnamed nation,

By the looks of this poll, we will be training a military unit as our first act of production. How shall we utilize our first Warrior?

1. Do we send him out to explore, or do we garrison him at home?

2. Which way should we send our scouts?

In the coming days, I will be making assessments of the land to determine which ground will give us the best chance of taking on the Great Unknown. In the meantime, let's start here.

 

[Swissempire]

EXPLORE with out a doubt. Also maybe send him south, or just press explore. I always find that easier!

 

[DaveShack]

Pressing explore takes the fun out of second guessing yourself about whether you went the right direction or a wrong one.

A lot depends on if the people are comfortable with leaving the capital city undefended for a while. If that's OK, then I'd recommend going to the hill to the ESE, and then south to a point below the hills to our south, then west. Some of the people who are gifted with far sight think they might be able to see floodplains or grasslands past those hills, and we need to know if any foodstuffs might be found there to give us better health.

All of this is dependent however on what we can see once the city is founded. If we can see fertile land beyond the forest to the north, exploring in that direction would also be good.

As noted by others, finding other tribes is a good idea but not the priority it would be in the parallel 3rd universe, since we can't actually do anything with those tribes until we have learned to write using an alphabet.

 

[von_Clausewitz]

explore. follow the river, its a trade link and it would be nice to see where it goes. of course using hills when available.

 

[Hardvark]

Let's explore, kill animals and gain experience! It's a while until barbarians come along, so our capital should be safe enough. I'd wait and see what founding our city shows us, but following the river looks interesting.

 

[Tubby Rower]

I'm kind of with Dave and von Clausewitz here on ESE and the river but SSW is also inticing.

 

[uubry]

Go NE twice, then start going in a circle.

 

[Gloriana]

Explore without a doubt! We can take out animals as we encounter them, and barbarians are no threat yet. I suggest taking to the hills, as they give us a greater line of sight.

 

[TSteamer]

Two propositions, broad and specific:

Broad: My overall suggestion would be for us to as a general rule--go with visibility over defense. Stick to the hills and after that, stay in the forest for defensive purposes. Why hills? Visibility is better than defense...in a favorable fight, surprise your enemy on favorable terrain and win a fight by avoiding a fight in unfavorable territory. *There is nothing worse than getting surprised by a bear who is up on a forested hill while you are on a floodplain. So, I believe movement should follow the priority of 1) forested hills, 2) hills, 3) forest, 4) riversides other...

Specific: I propose exploring NW first. NW gets us onto that hill which will give us better visibility. Assuming there are no huts that are in visibility at that point, I then move 2 SW (from that hill we would be on) where it looks to me like there is a base of a hill in the fog.

EDITED for content 10 seconds after posting...apologies

 

[Sexton]

Following the river gets my two cents... Checking the pigs out could also be good. I agree with staying in forests and hills as much as possible.

 

[GeorgeOP]

If we settle right where he is, won't the city's culture so north? I don't think we should move N unless we plan on continuing that way for several turns.

I feel we should follow the yet to be named river and find where all this water is running. Rivers are good for cities, coasts are good for cities, and the river should lead us to a coast. That way we find a nice future city site earlier. Then we can go explore for wild animals, goody huts, and other inferior civilizations.

I always like using the second warrior to protect our glorious city. Does anyone/everyone think we should explore with him also?

 

[Bengeance]

We've got to explore, but I suggest going generally north and East. Possiblity of ocean up there and may find a really nice coastal city location. Plus desert to the south west and forest to the north make me think we could be near the equator in which case our most likely avenue of expansion will be north for a while.

 

[Tubby Rower]

Most people are thinking that we are exploring for new city sites. Once another civs cultural borders are placed, it's up to them if we get to explore that area. We'll get another warrior for scouting soon enough.

Bengeance is right that we are likely just north of the equator. So there should be a civ or two to our south.

Exploring north will not give us any great information about the area. Animals will stay away from cities and barbs are a ways off. the pigs will be scouted when we settle and there are some indications of the coast being in that direction.

With that being said, I think that exploring the river straight away is the best tactic. This will allow us to meet some rivals and explore "their" territory before they claim it and then we take it back.

 

[Swissempire]

Follow the River!

 

[Mr. G]

Instead of healing the scout for 7 turns, why not send it back home to gain a more favorable responce from that village located to the west of Boaring Wallow? The promotion would give some of its strength back and it can heal in our territory after it explores the village. Of course, the warrior should keep close to make sure no other civilization gets there first.

 

[fe3333au]

Excuse this old slow idiot ... where can I find screenies with all this new info ... suddenly our capital founded and scout ?? (or is it a warrior ??) injured (from what and where) ... I'm confused

 

[Chieftess]

Instead of healing the scout for 7 turns, why not send it back home to gain a more favorable responce from that village located to the west of Boaring Wallow? The promotion would give some of its strength back and it can heal in our territory after it explores the village. Of course, the warrior should keep close to make sure no other civilization gets there first.

There's a warrior much closer to it. Also, we can send the scout south (SE perhaps?) to find forest/hills to rest on for a bit. It can be promoted, which WILL heal the unit somewhat.

 

[Tubby Rower]

fe, the initial warrior popped a GH to get a scout.

There is a screenie from I believe turn 5 , a chatlog and saves for turn 0, 5, and 10 here.

 

[Chieftess]

Excuse this old slow idiot ... where can I find screenies with all this new info ... suddenly our capital founded and scout ?? (or is it a warrior ??) injured (from what and where) ... I'm confused

That's why I posted a chatlog, if you want to read it.

 

[TSteamer]

And if folks read the above post please note that it is crystal clear that DZ was refering to the warrior as a "scout". NOTE the screenshot right above in his own post. In fact, the whole thread is about where to move the warrior (not the supposed and imaginary scouts from his point #2.) Anyway, in the chatlog there was a considerabledebate over DZ's true intent.

Forgive my armchair quarterbacking, but I still cant believe we lost that NW hut because of that silly debate. We should have moved to it immediately once we saw it and then a roaming Mongol got it.