My pre-game discussion: I hate not being on the coast so I would be inclined to start the worker irrigating in place and move the settler southwest across the river to found. Then curggah for faster contact --> warrior, and farmers gambit. See if we can get pottery from someone before first settler completes and switch to granary unless we're really hemmed in. Hope there's the iron in those hills. For research I don't know, I guess I would go for mysticism at minimal or just turn it off completely until we get alphabet and go writing--> lit. The GL would be huge but I find it much more difficult to get on Sid than Diety. I often lose it to a cascade from Sun Tsu's. It would depend on the tech pace whether we go for it.
AG12 - Space Race (Sid)
- Thread starter Aggie
- Start date
Aggie
Deity
I agree with the farmer's gambit (if possible), but I'm not so sure about the settler move. I'd like to see the wheat in the first nine. However, I understand the need for a curragh.
Switching off research sounds logical.
Switching off research sounds logical.
Yes you're right, it pains me to be just off the coast but it would probably be foolish to delay growth so much for that.
EDIT: Stupid me we don't start with alphabet so early currgah is out anyway. I'm so used to starting with alphabet. My current view. Found in place, research off, farmers.
EDIT: Stupid me we don't start with alphabet so early currgah is out anyway. I'm so used to starting with alphabet. My current view. Found in place, research off, farmers.
Ya, I would at least wait for discussion. 
[Edit: So we do start with alphabet? For some reason I have troubles remember what is what on the techs vs traits. In that case ignore what I said below]
Don't we need alphabet for a curragh? Do we start with alphabet
I am not sure whether we will not be able to build a Curragh for a long time in which case the second city could be coastal and we can settle right away.
Aggie I just noticed a small problem with the roster - Betazed snuck in and stole your turn when you weren't looking.
I am guessing the second Betazed is really you.
[Edit: So we do start with alphabet? For some reason I have troubles remember what is what on the techs vs traits. In that case ignore what I said below]
Don't we need alphabet for a curragh? Do we start with alphabet
I am not sure whether we will not be able to build a Curragh for a long time in which case the second city could be coastal and we can settle right away.
Aggie I just noticed a small problem with the roster - Betazed snuck in and stole your turn when you weren't looking.
I am guessing the second Betazed is really you.
Aggie
Deity
Changed it! And indeed, it looks like we have to explore with warriors for some time.
Any preference on number of warriors? For me I think it depends on whether the direction to the North is a real direction. For that reason, I would send the first warrior N, and then build 2 if it dead ends and 3 or possibly 4 if it goes somewhere.
Aggie
Deity
I am ok with that Greebely 
PS. We start with Masonry and Bronze working. Not with Alphabet!
PS. We start with Masonry and Bronze working. Not with Alphabet!
Preturn: I hit F10 and hit the Launch button. It buzzes at me. Hmmm, we seem to be missing something. This may be harder than I thought...
Move worker as suggested. Settle in place.
I realize the posts on what to research all were based on us having alphabet. Pottery is 40 turns (this is what I always go for first myself - it usually drops in turns to a reasonable amount for everything a huge sid map), but the general consensus seems toward no research at all. I do this and hope we are not alone and can trade for pottery and alphabet.
Early:
I irrigate and road the wheat
At first N looks dead endish, but it seems to go E then N. I start a 3rd warrior.
There are 2 forest deer that will be useful (+2 food, +2 shields is nice for 2nd and 3rd towns)
Mid:
I road and mine the BG
Our piece of land is narrow. There exist "boat shortcut" city locations.
I MM a single turn of +2 food / +4 shields to get the third warrior a turn earlier
I stop at 3 warriors. The fourth has unit cost and I am not at all sure he would be needed.
Late:
I irrigate and road some plains.
The way N is a dead end that can hold several cities.
No contact so we build a settler. Start Barracks.
Notes:
I hope we are not alone. Our no research strategy requires meeting someone. We still have good possibilities to the E to do so.
We have saved 82 gold for when we meet someone. No research done.
The settler is on the square I felt was worth settling. It is coastal with a whale (when we get culture) and is next to the first deer.
I am going to try an initial dot map. The north especially is hard to decide.
We should also discuss whether the worker should irrigate his current square; chop forest on deer and irrigate. I feel it is.
Move worker as suggested. Settle in place.
I realize the posts on what to research all were based on us having alphabet. Pottery is 40 turns (this is what I always go for first myself - it usually drops in turns to a reasonable amount for everything a huge sid map), but the general consensus seems toward no research at all. I do this and hope we are not alone and can trade for pottery and alphabet.
Early:
I irrigate and road the wheat
At first N looks dead endish, but it seems to go E then N. I start a 3rd warrior.
There are 2 forest deer that will be useful (+2 food, +2 shields is nice for 2nd and 3rd towns)
Mid:
I road and mine the BG
Our piece of land is narrow. There exist "boat shortcut" city locations.
I MM a single turn of +2 food / +4 shields to get the third warrior a turn earlier
I stop at 3 warriors. The fourth has unit cost and I am not at all sure he would be needed.
Late:
I irrigate and road some plains.
The way N is a dead end that can hold several cities.
No contact so we build a settler. Start Barracks.
Notes:
I hope we are not alone. Our no research strategy requires meeting someone. We still have good possibilities to the E to do so.
We have saved 82 gold for when we meet someone. No research done.
The settler is on the square I felt was worth settling. It is coastal with a whale (when we get culture) and is next to the first deer.
I am going to try an initial dot map. The north especially is hard to decide.
We should also discuss whether the worker should irrigate his current square; chop forest on deer and irrigate. I feel it is.
Here is a map of the North. I put comments on the map itself. It is difficult to fill this area with towns. I think it worth discussing as I am not at all sure I got the best spots on the first try.
Aggie
Deity
We appear to have enough room for expansion to the north. I opened the save and see some excellent (edit: better than the north) spots to the south as well. Do you have a dotmap for that Greebley?
Here is a map of our southern lands. This terrain is more flexible in terms of placing towns. I marked some sites I thought worthwhile in the relatively near future.
I like the green town for an FP. The FP will lower corruption and thus make use of the shields. I was unsure which of the two green dots I liked better. There are alternate high shield spots to the north, but those are closer to the capitol and thus don't need the FP as much to have decent shields.
The Yellow dots I was unsure on as well.
A full dot map may have to wait until the next player does some fog busting.
[Edit: Yep I do. I agree the south has the better land and is thus higher priority than much of the north.
I like the green town for an FP. The FP will lower corruption and thus make use of the shields. I was unsure which of the two green dots I liked better. There are alternate high shield spots to the north, but those are closer to the capitol and thus don't need the FP as much to have decent shields.
The Yellow dots I was unsure on as well.
A full dot map may have to wait until the next player does some fog busting.
[Edit: Yep
I do. I agree the south has the better land and is thus higher priority than much of the north.
Aggie
Deity
He he I was too impatient! I would start settling in the south and then go north. We have fresh water and grassland in the south, which we should exploit. Also, an expanding AI could take these spots away from us easier than in the north.
I was too impatient! I would start settling in the south and then go north. We have fresh water and grassland in the south, which we should exploit. Also, an expanding AI could take these spots away from us easier than in the north.
Agreed.
One reason I said the 3rd town to the NW was that the forest-deer gives +2 shields at size 1 and is thus a very good spot for early on. It is also coastal and start cranking out Curraghs if need be. I would go for a barracks to have it produce units and Curraghs - a deer forest + 2 other forests would be 6 shields probably with 1 corrupted and thus build warriors every 2 or spears/archers every 4 to provide town defense or curraghs every 3.
After the third town, I would settle the next towns to the south as you state and then turn to the North.
One reason I said the 3rd town to the NW was that the forest-deer gives +2 shields at size 1 and is thus a very good spot for early on. It is also coastal and start cranking out Curraghs if need be. I would go for a barracks to have it produce units and Curraghs - a deer forest + 2 other forests would be 6 shields probably with 1 corrupted and thus build warriors every 2 or spears/archers every 4 to provide town defense or curraghs every 3.
After the third town, I would settle the next towns to the south as you state and then turn to the North.
Aggie
Deity
I can agree with that Greebley. It certainly depends on what we see under the fog in the east though.
ROSTER:
Greebley--- just played
betazed--- up
Mark1031-- on deck
Aggie
open
open
ROSTER:
Greebley--- just played
betazed--- up
Mark1031-- on deck
Aggie
open
open
Ya, I think I agree with that. I am not even sure on my third city spot. Do we need military and curraghs more than cities that can grow?
[Edit: Since we are playing a builder game, I woul grab the best city-sites first.
I feel we still have a chance of meeting an AI as the lands seems to extend east. I agree though we should seriously consider research as it may also be the case there is no civ to the E.
One thing Nad taught me is that the number of resources roughly correspond to the number of civs on the continent. If we find 2 resources, it means it is more likely we will find another civ on the continent. If we do not, then we are more likely to be alone.
One other thing about the southern green dot is that it grabs the one Lux we have seen. It is a bit far away so shouldn't be immediate, but I would settle it soonish.
[Edit: Since we are playing a builder game, I woul grab the best city-sites first.
I feel we still have a chance of meeting an AI as the lands seems to extend east. I agree though we should seriously consider research as it may also be the case there is no civ to the E.
One thing Nad taught me is that the number of resources roughly correspond to the number of civs on the continent. If we find 2 resources, it means it is more likely we will find another civ on the continent. If we do not, then we are more likely to be alone.
One other thing about the southern green dot is that it grabs the one Lux we have seen. It is a bit far away so shouldn't be immediate, but I would settle it soonish.
Aggie
Deity
My priorities:
1. Grab as much good land as possible. We have a a great opportunity now!
2. Meet other civs. We have enough scouting warriors imho. Our 2nd city could build a curragh (the one that we are about to settle).
3. Discover/trade for techs. We should grab every opportunity (although for now we haven't seen other civs) and probably should go for Pottery at minimum.
1. Grab as much good land as possible. We have a a great opportunity now!
2. Meet other civs. We have enough scouting warriors imho. Our 2nd city could build a curragh (the one that we are about to settle).
3. Discover/trade for techs. We should grab every opportunity (although for now we haven't seen other civs) and probably should go for Pottery at minimum.
If we go for pottery, I would vote for Max research and not wait 50 turns. That is too long. Pottery is only 120 beakers.
If we go for alphabet, I would say min might be better as it is expensive.
If we go for alphabet, I would say min might be better as it is expensive.
