ALC Game 21: Zulus/Shaka

I would be willing to bet that one of those non-forested tiles has a resource. I almost never move my settler, and in this case you have even more reason not to, since you can't see much of the terrain because your scout started so far away.

The chances of you getting a BETTER capital is less than your changes of getting a WORSE capital.

A settler move 1N would keep both the unforested 'possible resource' tiles in the fat-x, and possibly add some nice rivered tiles. The scout move will make it much clearer.

...waits =P
 
My first reaction: Inland Sea, Standard Size, 7 Civs. There is going to be a lot of empty space. I almost always knock inland sea down by 1 size from the default. The 2-move, mobility Impis are going to get a workout.

I vote for scouting N-NE. You can see all but your very SE-ern most tile, and it doesn't look like you're giving anything up there. Settling north looks promising.
 
I would be willing to bet that one of those non-forested tiles has a resource. I almost never move my settler, and in this case you have even more reason not to, since you can't see much of the terrain because your scout started so far away.

The chances of you getting a BETTER capital is less than your changes of getting a WORSE capital.

I recently read a very interesting thread about starting cities with lots of forests:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252429&highlight=resource

Apparently, as of BTS, when the map generator sees that a city is less good than it should be compared to the rest of the civ starting locations, it compensates by adding additional "good" things.

In order, it...
turns mountains into hills
adds a small lake to grant fresh water if you don't start with fresh water
remove jungle and ice
add food so that you have at least 1 food or 2 seafood resources
converts "bad" terrain so that you have at least 4 grassland forests
Add "Extras" until your city value is at least a certain percent of the mean or median (I forget which) starting city value.

The extras are
a. Add a forest to every plot that can have one.
b. Add certain kinds of resources until you have four or more, with seafood counting as 2/3 of a resource.
c. Add hills until you have three hills.


...and since forests prevent most other resources, step b never occurs unless you are coastal and if you are coastal, then you get a start like Ragnar in the previous game and Super-Fish-Rome from a few games ago with way more seafood than any city should possibly use in a single game.

End result: I'd be willing to bet that 0% of those forests hold resources. The only resources they could hold are Horses, Copper or Iron since you'd see the resources already otherwise and Horses, Copper and Iron won't exist on a forest, so we know for sure that there are no resources left, visible or invisible (I'm not counting Coal, Aluminum, Oil or Uranium since we're Shaka. The game won't last that long.)
 
I moved the Scout 2N:

ALC21_4000BC_03.jpg


More flood plains, as I suspected. I think this argues in favour of settling in place; I'll betcha anything there's desert directly north of the flood plains, and I think we'll all agree that given the choice between plains or desert in the capital's BFC, it's better to have the former rather than the latter.

Post your thoughts. I'll play and post the first round tomorrow night.
 
Settle in place is the best option. Some decent feeding ability and production. Won't be a mega capital but should produce well enough to rush rush rush.
 
Settle in place... chances are you could find Deer to the south, or maybe you'll uncover Sheep (which sometimes will appear near areas of tundra).

Don't forget that the Wheat is next to the river, hence you'll get five food when it's farmed, so you'll have pretty good growth, along with the floodplains.
 
Call me crazy, but given that you plan to warmonger and a Bureaucracy/Ironworks capital might come into play, I would settle 1E to get that extra hill in the fat-X. However knowing my luck if you move Copper or Iron will show up on the unforrested grassland the Scout is standing on.
 
I'm usually big on settling in place but 1N looks attractive. What about moving onto the wheat and seeing whats up? Either way, only 1 turn would be lost.
 
Call me crazy, but given that you plan to warmonger and a Bureaucracy/Ironworks capital might come into play, I would settle 1E to get that extra hill in the fat-X. However knowing my luck if you move Copper or Iron will show up on the unforrested grassland the Scout is standing on.

river are the best tiles for bureaucracy : you can ever cottage them or spam watermills.

settle in place, fast build a worker using the forest plain hill and go for mining -> bw
 
Settling in place would be a real shocker! 2 hills, and possibly tundra tiles to the south! Not a very good start.
You need to settle at least 1 tile north. I would prefer to move settler 2 squares NE onto the grassland hill to reveal maximum tiles North and East, where the rivers are flowing from, then show another screen shot. True there may be desert north of the flood plains, but you also have as much chance seeing gold on hills as well which could more than make up for a couple of lost turns settling. I usually take these risks delaying settling and more often than not it pays off, where at least you're then able to calculate a settling tile that gives maximum commerce for the city with a balance of food and production.
 
There's never tundra, desert (except floodplains) or ice in the BFC of the first city if you settle in place.
 
Call me crazy, but given that you plan to warmonger and a Bureaucracy/Ironworks capital might come into play, I would settle 1E to get that extra hill in the fat-X. However knowing my luck if you move Copper or Iron will show up on the unforrested grassland the Scout is standing on.

I'd be 90% certain that if the game lasts long enough to think about building an Ironworks, we'll have moved the palace by then - pushed up against the edge of the map is a terrible location for your principal anti-maintenance city on a map with this much land.

And even if it is still the capital, there's no guarantee we'd want to be in Bureaucracy most of the time anyway - Nationalism, Vassalage and Free Speech all offer very useful empire-wide benefits, as opposed to the single-city benefit of Bur.

You're not crazy, though. ;)

These things are always worth considering, and extra hills are nothing to sneeze at, though I suspect 1E would pick up some tundra as well as losing a floodplain. :sad:

Edit: Is that water I see 1N1NE of the scout? It'd be very unfortunate if we were caught between the sea and the edge of the map...
 
There's never tundra, desert (except floodplains) or ice in the BFC of the first city if you settle in place.

Are you sure about that? I'm sure I've seen Tundra or Desert in the BFC on settling in place, but there's ample resources that make up for it. I've never seen Ice though.
 
Are you sure about that? I'm sure I've seen Tundra or Desert in the BFC on settling in place, but there's ample resources that make up for it. I've never seen Ice though.

no there cant be tundra or desert. you even sometimes have very funny AI capitals : lost in the middle of tundra, but the 21 tiles from the fatcross are all grassland / river / plains :lol:

kind of "artic oasis" I guess.
 
I guess I must move my settler so much revealing terrain that I forget where it was originally. Thats nice to know you never get desert/tundra in BFC though.
 
settle in place. this tile 3N1E seems to be coast. settling 1 tile off the cost is a big no-no. :D
and 3N might be desert..
 
Are you sure about that? I'm sure I've seen Tundra or Desert in the BFC on settling in place, but there's ample resources that make up for it. I've never seen Ice though.

Bad terrain/features surrounding the initial settler gets removed/replaced, but only for the tiles you'd get if you settle in place. That's why you never have peaks in the BFC, for example. See this thread for details on how the starting location is generated: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252429
 
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