Catherine of Russia - Who wants to Play?

[Harv]

Here are the settings. I think I got it right this time.

Spoiler :

I'm still stuck on Chieftain Emperor level, until I get more comfortable with some things and maybe break the building spam habit, maybe try to pause more often.

Here is the start:

Spoiler :

It looks like lots of flood plains and some marble. I count 9 flood plain tiles.

Is there anywhere to move the scout? I am thinking we can move to (0,3) and then (-1,2) and reveal a little bit of land to the north.

Research nothing for the first five turns is the plan.

I was going to say the starting techs do nothing for us, but Mining does give us a step towards Bronze, which is always useful.

I will edit in early thoughts as well.

 

[Jellybug]

food must be east if I read it right, either on the hill or in the grassland. flood plain or forest precludes all other fogged tiles

edit: i might shadow i love Cat

 

[Harv]

food must be east if I read it right, either on the hill or in the grassland. flood plain or forest precludes all other fogged tiles

edit: i might shadow i love Cat

If you read it right, food must be east? Is that because......
The South is all Flood Plain?
The West is all Forest?
The North is all Visible?
That leaves the East and the Script says there must be one food resource?

Plains Hill Cow?

Shadow if you want! Last game, I did a big restart, because I botched the part after rushing my neighbor Nappy. Level settings are visible.

 

[lymond]

I believe JB is right that food is on either of the two tiles to the East.

No idea what your coordinates mean, but I would move Scout 1E1SE on PH to get a good view...then decide from there.

FPs are a conundrum sometimes..Great for bureau caps/cottages but can be slow without strong food to enhance.

edit: Yep you pretty much have her thinking straight there...it's pretty easy to deduce what is in the immediate fog here

 

[umass_dude]

I will have a go at it. I am stuck struggling emperor level. Appreciate any feedback myself. Pretty new on the forum.

 

[Harv]

Catherine of Russia:

Creative - That has been my crutch in the recent few games. I don't believe it is quite the same as Financial, but I think it is solidly a tier two trait. I like the five-turn border pops early in the game. Also, Libraries are cheaper. So we can build one for 45 hammers.

Imperialistic - Double hammers towards Settlers, double XP towards Great General. In the previous games, I got to see the Imperialistic civilizations put down their Settlers earlier. We should be doing the same. Does this mean we have a 2-pop Settler whip?

Earlier Great General - We get our healer unit sooner. After that, I will have to think of what to do with our Generals.

What should I name our first Great General? January?

Cossacks - I really don't know much about them. I remember watching some movie a long time ago.

Edit: I found one of the scenes:

Spoiler :

My hair is so long right now, maybe I can do the style by shaving most of my head!

Research Institute - I looked it up, two free scientists. It sounds great, but by the time it shows up, the game is pretty much over.

 

[umass_dude]

Earlier Great General - We get our healer unit sooner

Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by healer unit?

 

[Harv]

Stone instead of Marble would have made the initial plan easier.

Research Mining, then Masonry, quarry the stone, build GW and 'Mids, then cruise to on to a cultural victory.

What do now?

 

[Harv]

Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by healer unit?

Somebody taught me to use the Great General on a Warrior unit, and use all the experience points to promote to Healer 3. So this unit in a stack can heal units much faster. A Warrior gets used, because it heals just as well as any other unit, but the very low strength means it is very unlikely the unit gets attacked and killed.

Since we start with a Scout, we can also use that unit.

 

[dankok8]

Vanilla Cossacks were insane but the BTS Cossacks aren't so bad. They aren't a game-changing UU but they get lots of kills against stray mounted units and rarely ever die. .

 

[lymond]

I actually use warriors for Woody 3 Super Medic...chariots worker fine for super medic or even a scout if you start with one,but I rarely do that. But yeah, I usually use first GG on super medic unless a better situation arises in battle like healing a few units at once by spreading out the XP.

No decision here until you move the scout

My hair is a disgusting long mess

 

[Harv]

No idea what your coordinates mean, but I would move Scout 1E1SE on PH to get a good view...then decide from there.

My convention to use Cartesian coordinates, (x,y). For the starting position, I reference (0,0) as the location of the Settler. x is the number of squares east. -x is the number of squares west. y is the number of squares north. -y is the number of squares south.

So the Marble is located at (0,2) and the Scout is located at (1,2).

When I found the first city, the reference point will change to the location of the initial city, Moscow, because its location will always be visible and obvious, but we might forget where the initial Settler started.

So you recommend moving the Scout to the Plains Hill at (3,1).

 

[lymond]

That's fine, but using cardinal directions is much easier for stoopid folks like myself

(3,1) means 1E1SE then yes...

wait is 3x = 3E..that can't work

 

[Jellybug]

i vote Onegin or Pechorin for gr general

 

[Harv]

No decision here until you move the scout

I was going to leave this overnight for my friends in the European time zone, but I am getting a lot of activity right now! I am going to grab a quick snack, wait 8 minutes to 8:00PM New York time, then move the scout as you suggest.

My thought was otherwise to move the scout westward to reveal that forest, but I believe you are saying we already know what is there and that will be revealed when we settle.

 

[umass_dude]

Somebody taught me to use the Great General on a Warrior unit, and use all the experience points to promote to Healer 3. So this unit in a stack can heal units much faster. A Warrior gets used, because it heals just as well as any other unit, but the very low strength means it is very unlikely the unit gets attacked and killed.

Since we start with a Scout, we can also use that unit.

Great idea, thanks

 

[lymond]

Oh..feel free to wait for the euros..i'm bout outta here for dinner myself

Revealing forest does absolutely nothing...my goal here would be to consider moving the settler

the purpose of that first unit move is to reveal additional info that can possibly improve your settling situation, or reveal possible losses if you already have in mind to move

known forest is...well...known forest

JB is extremely erudite...What was the name of that famous Russian movie about Muscovy..his name is the name of the movie.. (Alexander Nevsky or something ?)
yep...he was Novgorod actually..all the same in the end

 

[Harv]

Okay, I moved the scout.

Spoiler :

I was almost going to guess Plains Hill Sheep, but went with Plains Hill Cow.
(So 3 food, 2 hammers, 1 commerce)
(Except for the flood plains, we did not really get a food start.)

Added. I knew there was a river, because I could see the headwaters. Now it is more clearly visible.

 

[lymond]

There's no Plains Hill cow on standard map scripts.

My inclination is to step 1SE with the settler with possibly settling the PH 3E which is just so sweet a start even with 2 moves. FPs could be backfilled later.

but FPs plus ph sheep is weak start IMO

 

[Harv]

My inclination is to step 1SE with the settler with possible into on settling the PH 3E which is just so sweet a start even with 2 moves. FPs could be backfilled later.

If I am delaying settling by two turns, should I move to the desert hill? Or is there something that can be revealed with the 1SE step that might cause me to settle?

I will be back in about half an hour or so.