COTM 15 Pre-game Discussion

[Karasu]

Tired of shuttling galleys back and forth? What about going back to a Pangaea...

Map: Standard
Landform: Pangaea (a fairly typical pangaea, I'd say)
Temperature: Cool and windy
Climate: Wet
Geology: 5 Billion years
Water: 70%

Difficulty: Monarch.
Rivals: Seven (pre-selected and bloodthirsty)
Barbarians: Quietly roaming and very discreet.

And a tearing dilemma to begin with:

Oh, I almost forgot the civ! So, to satisfy your old request, here comes...

... India!

 

[Karasu]

Just a note so you don't when you start the game: two civs have been renamed to fit with the atmosphere of the map, but none of their features has been modified otherwise (you'll see who they are by the leaders' faces anyway).

Conquest class bonuses:
- An extra Worker
- 25 gold pieces in the coffers
- Summer sale on War Elephants, now cheaper at 60 gp each

Predator class equalisers:
- AI unit support and cost factor increased to Emperor level
- All AI start with an extra settler
- You are a sensible nation! You realize that there is no way to turn Horses into Elephants
(that is, Horsemen won't upgrade to War Elephants. Both will upgrade to Cavalry, however).

 

[Markus5]

Hmmm. East or west or settle in place. Well, regardless of what I choose, I'll probably know where the 2nd city will be.

East. I'm going east. No, wait. West. But, the gold bonus is nice if I settle in place. My brain hurts.

War Elephants will be a nice golden age trigger.

 

[Obormot]

Both will upgrade to Cavalry, however.

And how do you turn elephants into cavalry? Put them on a good diet?
But i like the predator bonuses: the raize the level to emperor and a halve. Should be good for a space-race game.
The gold hill is nice, but cow is much more important, so i'll propably move to the east.

 

[ionimplant]

the river originates from the east and probably there's ocean there, which mean fewer cities can be arranged around Delhi. also it seems the eastern part has a little more jungles and mountains and 1 less bonus tile than the west... if i don't go to the south, i guess i'll take the western direction... however India is an estern country... and "two civs have been renamed to fit with the atmosphere of the map", maybe we should go to where we belong.

 

[chunkymonkey]

A most bodacious start!

Do we need the extra gold right now? I don't think we do considering this is Monarch and we start with Alphabet, we've got a head-start to Republic slingshot anyway. So no settling on the gold for me.

So east or west? There isn't much to choose between the two, except an extra BG to the west, or a possibly better strategic position to the east along the river. I'll probably end up flipping a coin.

I've been waiting to play as India for some time, thanks Karasu! Fast conquest attempt for me I believe...

 

[Obormot]

Well, i'll play propably play predator space-race, so east looks better for me. It seems that on predator you can miss the slingshot easily and the eastern cow is on the river - one more coin. Also to the west the river ends, so eastern position means more core towns on a river.

 

[killercane]

PANGAEA with that start!??!? Only 7 opponents? A civ that starts with alphabet and has a Knight UU? I have a funny feeling that the medal winners are going to be in the BC date range, especially with the quick government change to save a few turns. I also have gazed into my crystal ball and predicted no horses and a lack of resources to put more emphasis on the UU.

Any victory condition is looking good with India's traits. We're right smack dab in the middle of the map too. Geez.

 

[Xerol]

Let's see...

East:
More forests available, and we get defensive bonus from anything to the Northwest. Also looks like there's a river 2E.

West:
Extra hill available after expansion, could be good 20k spot. Defensive river bonus from anything south.

In place:
Immediate gold, but no cows.

Well, since I don't really want to go for 20k (I have yet to get a non-cultural/space victory in Conquests) I'll go East. Worker 2E to the cow, water, road, then W, N to the BG above the river.

 

[Seraphinus]

Probably west will be better and then second city SW of east cow. With being religious and with good settler factory possible on two location fast expansion will be possible, so 20K and 100K could also be reached quite fast.

 

[Own]

I'm so afraid I'll pick the bad spot. West looks better cause of the extra BG, but that may be a diversion, and the Gotm staff is trying to trick us. I think I'm going west.

 

[eldar]

Head west for the extra BG, plus the worker starts on a tile that's going to be worked right away. There's a little less gold but it's a fair trade-off for the extra production. A six-turn unit/settler factory, with similar with the other cow... nice.

 

[DBear]

Ok, it's India...7 preselected and bloodthirsty....

Mongols, Japan, Persia, China, Russia, Greeks, hmmm...

and two civs renamed...

The Timurids, perhaps? The Sikhs?

Aggro neighbors, in the middle of a pangaea.

 

[DaveMcW]

In keeping with Karasu's evil resource placement, I expect to see horses and iron everywhere this game.

West does seem slightly better, with the extra BG and more flexibility in placing the second city.

Edit: It looks like the western cow is also on a river.

If I fail to finish my COTM14 culture game, this would be a fun map to try again...

 

[Jason Fliegel]

Probably west will be better and then second city SW of east cow.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

 

[Own]

Mongols, Japan, Persia, China, Russia, Greeks,

You forgot Germany?

I think that where you build the capital doesn't really matter. If one has slightly better tiles than the other, there's not that big a difference between the capital and a rank 1 city.

 

[nerovats]

In keeping with Karasu's evil resource placement, I expect to see horses and iron everywhere this game.

Or just one on the other side of the world like COTM14.
Things look too easy to me. Maybe this is the only firtile land and are we surounded by miles of jungle.

 

[Più Freddo]

It looks like the western cow is also on a river.

Yes, look at that. In the left corner something blue.

East or west, it seems we should build a Settler before the Granary this time, then a Worker after it.

 

[King Of America]

Never mind (if a moderator could just delete this post, that would be fine).

 

[Più Freddo]

A note about the Golden Hill.

Once we have built our Granary, we'll work it on every turn. First two turns with 3 fpt surplus working irrigated Cattle and mined Hill, then one turn with 4 fpt surplus causing population growth with the Hill automatically selected (sure, since +4 ftp).

Before we have the Granary, we can't afford to work the Hill at all, so the Bonus Grasslands should be mined first, and the mine on the Hill timed to finish with the first population growth after completing the Granary. If the mine comes later it's no big deal, since we can use a Forest instead.

Am I right to assume that not only shields, but also gold is netted from the automatically selected tile at population growth? I believe I have observed this.