COTM 16 Pre-game Discussion

[Capt Buttkick]

Kicking off the GA with Impis after a gov switch should be no sweat with Monarch difficulty. The AI won't be far off into the MA, if at all, which means attack units of max 3 strength and still lots of archers around.

I'm a bit curious why everyone think the western waters are salty. It could be a lake, couldn't it? Which would make the corruption arguement for moving inland redundant.

 

[EsatP]

Not much to add to what has been said. Could be a good idea to skip the Impis and trigger the Golden Age by capturing the Colossus or the Great Lighthouse and building one of:

the Statue of Zeus
Knights Templar
Leonardo's Workshop
Sun Tzu's Art of War

Or even the Great Wall -- bad wonder, good timing.

If the Colossus is not available perhaps we can capture the Statue of Zeus and build the Great Lighthouse.

Great Wall -- good wonder. If You have it - then AI have not!!!
GA on 10-11 turns is good start factor if You goal to conquest victory.

 

[Jove]

Would that be just curiousity or are you hoping to see something specific?

Well, both. If I'm gambling on the Wheel, I thought the ante could be upped by gambling a worker move SW. We'll see 2 tiles across the water, and down the coast, discovering...who knows? If the scout goes east, this would provide that much more information on which to base a decision. Karasu does odd things sometimes, I'm thinking of the slim possibility that a nice settler factory could be had by moving the capitol to where the wheat is had on expansion. There's no shields visible, but I find it hard to believe there won't be any anywhere. Now, I didn't think too hard about all this, so be warned it might be malarkey. I haven't decided anything for sure yet.

 

[Redbad]

Yes, listing to your story Jove, you have convinced me. Worker 1 SW would be a cool move. Seeing across the 2 watertiles, the worker would explore some additional 8 or 9 tiles. Combinend with a scout that goes, lets say, 2 moves due east, revealing some 10 tiles, will give us total 18 new visible tiles. So before deciding on what to do with the settler our visiblility will have tripled.

This will give us a strong position in the quest for bonusgrass. And only at the expense of 1 workermove.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Indeed, that sounds very interesting. I might do that.
Jove

 

[Più Freddo]

Great Wall -- good wonder. If You have it - then AI have not!

Usually, taking the Great Wall city in the very beginning of the war is not a big problem.

GA on 10-11 turns is good start factor if You goal to conquest victory.

Can't follow you here.

 

[Più Freddo]

Indeed, that sounds very interesting. I might do that.

The Norskies and their whales... What else is there to see at sea?

 

[Capt Buttkick]

The Norskies and their whales... What else is there to see at sea?

I was going to explore the coastlin anyway

 

[Redbad]

The Norskies and their whales... What else is there to see at sea?

When moving 1 SW with the worker, the next tiles will be visible:
S,SW landtile
W,NW landtile
W,SW watertile
W,S watertile
Across the water there will be another 5 tiles visible, which could be:
all landtiles (if the water is a 2 tile lake), all watertiles or any number of land/watertiles in between. So yes, I would say it's interesting to know.

 

[Jove]

If there's norskies, I want to know about it If I do take this option, it'll be only if the scout fails to discover something 'good enough' for a capitol location. Otherwise, worker to wheat as normal.
thx for the analysis Redbad.

Haven't seen a post from GOTM-AI lately. I bet he/they/it could just come out and tell us where the cows are

 

[compmage]

Finally upgraded to Conquests and it seems to be easier than Vanilla was, although I have only recently moved up to Regent, but I think I will play this in Open and forgo the conquest bonuses. Need to see if I can move up to Monarch in my normal games.

I have played two GotM games before, the first one (Monarch) was okay though I didn't submit because my son (3) kept turn the PC off an I had to reload plently of times because of this. The second didn't go so well (Emporer) but I somehow lost the save when I upgraded to Conquests, so I didn't get to finish it. This will be my first CotM.

Looking at the starting location, I don't like the shield situation here. I have a feeling that water is a lake. There is also a jungle (probably) peaking out of the fog S, SW of the start. I'll probably send the worker to the wheat and the scout W, W or W, NW. If no shields can be found I'll more than likely settle SW. Build order scout, scout/warrior? (maybe both), settler. Research The Wheel. At least we won't be short on commerce in this city.

 

[Più Freddo]

If I do take this option, it'll be only if the scout fails to discover something 'good enough' for a capitol location. Otherwise, worker to wheat as normal.

I suppose another prerequisite would be that the water is fresh? That's the possibility I overlooked.

 

[Jove]

Yeah, before you even do anything you could just check to see if it is 1 food or 2 food. If it's two food, it's a lake. If it's a lake, I may well end up a solenoozerec.
A question: Let's say the worker SW looks across 2 water tiles. If there exists a hill or mountain 3 tiles away, will that be visible, in the same way a warrior can see a 2-tile distant hill or mountian across a tile of grass?

 

[WetSawdustDemon]

Hmm interesting start, although I think I'll have to look further afield for my 20K site, at least it'll definetly be outside the capital this time around, which makes life easier. I will likely settle within one or two tiles of our start and then get that settler out as soon as I can. Mind you, building a worker first might well work out faster given the shield poor start.

 

[AlanH]

I've released the game here.

 

[tmarcl]

I haven't been by in awhile, but I've found more time to play Civ lately, so I think I'm going to play a GOTM. I'll probably lose, having never really played Monarch before, but what they hey.

I've been curious about the terrain discussion. From my browser, it looks like there's Mountains next to the marsh, and a Forest just south of the Wheat. Am I hallucinating?

Well, I'll download when I get home later. Wish me luck!

 

[AlanH]

Welcome Luck!

 

[PaperBeetle]

Well, I'll download when I get home later. Wish me luck!

Good luck.
I'm not sure where your mountain goes. The tile due south of the wheat is surely a jungle, as is the one SW of the marsh, i.e. 2NW of the start. There doesn't seem to much else out there apart from grass... I hope I'm missing something!
Personally I do my fog gazing in Photo Editor, with the brightness notched up a couple of points, sometimes the contrast down a bit, and the image size at 200-400%

 

[KamikazeDogfish]

Move settler sw 1 tile (away from GHEY swamp)
move worker onto WHEAT
Scout should go ne two tiles

 

[kulak]

No bonus grasslands near capital => nothing lost by a golden age in despotism?