Dr kossin #4

kossin

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Welcome to Dr kossin #4, which stands for Daily Round.

Yes, I will aim to get in a update every day - as long as I have the time (work, girlfriend, etc). I might skip a day here and there but I will compensate by playing an extra round here and there.
Now I don't plan on very long updates, sometimes just 10 turns, and will stop at strategic times.

That being said, I'm not a great player but I can manage at times. My goal is to improve and, if possible, help others improve as well. I couldn't beat Noble when I started reading this forum (could barely beat Warlord) and I am now in the process of getting comfortable on Immortal.

That's where you come in. I need your ideas, your criticism and everything else you can throw at me - even if you can't beat Noble. Since I plan on an update everyday, there will be mistakes from my part and I might not always get the best advice going forward. That's life!

You are also welcome to shadow this game, although I would prefer you post it in spoilers and no further than I have already played. You can still shadow the whole game and post it but it is important that no one uses that knowledge (land, AIs) to help me.

Without further time wasting, let's go to the first game.

Dr kossin #4

Round 1 At least there's stone
Round 2 It took them long enough to learn to spell
Round 3 Clearing jungle again
Round 4 Towards Liberalism
Round 5 War is hell! (aka We can't forget your cruel oppression!)
Round 6 Viva Joao

Game settings:
Immortal
Fractal (I've had a friend check that it is not isolated or semi-isolated)
Normal Speed
No Huts/Events
BUG 4.1 in Custom Assets
Everything else normal.

The leader this time is Joao, the Beggar King as I like to call him. A cookie to anyone that catches the reference.


Fast granaries, harbors, 25% extra production to workers, 2:health: to every city, 100% more points towards Great Generals, 50% bonus to :hammers: towards settlers. The REXX king.

His UB: a customs house with an extra :commerce: per water tile.


His UU: A caravel with an extra cargo place that can carry any unit. Great for offshore astronomy-required islands.


We start with Mining and Fishing.


A good combination for either coastal or inland.

And the start:


I took the liberty of moving the warrior 1S since we're 1 off the coast...


Here's what I think is in the fog:


Unirrigated corn (that's 4 games in a row with corn!), silk, cows, only 2 hills if I settle in place. Not much for a river to speak of.

I'm heading to bed now so I'll think of an opening tomorrow or let you guys do it for me :)
 
1 SE is probably the best location from what I can see, but I doubt it's worth the move, it gives you 1 more hill but you lose a turn+grassland+possible resource for..coastal tiles+access to build ships/GLH.
 
Bah, mediocre start to say the least. Coastal without seafood is just yuck to be honest. Cows and corn are nice, but with little production to back it up it also not that hot. 1 SE leaves you with at least 5 useless coastal tiles and maybe up to 7 in total. I really don't know what to advice here. Maybe even take an extra turn exploring in this case.
 
You're just south of the jungle belt so there's good terrain to the west most likely. I personally would settle 1SE for the cows, coastal, riverside and the additional hill. Not the hottest capital but with enough forests to chop you can get a proper rex going in no time.
 
Settle in place if you like monster bureaucracy cottage capitals or if you like saving a few gold per turn on maintenance.
 
Settle in place if you like monster bureaucracy cottage capitals or if you like saving a few gold per turn on maintenance.

Settling a capital at one square of the sea is stupid, especially with a sea based UB >_<

I would either go SE or settle more in the continent.
 
Ugly. If this were me, I'd hit that "regenerate map" button.

As for what to do? Staying in place sucks. 1SE sucks. What about just moving 1 NE? Lose the cow, gain the sugar, and at least all your water is coast. Or just moving 1E, and taking a coastal cap, keeping cow and corn?

Levy won't be any use anyways this game with that tiny river, so I wouldn't think of that too much. Make sure you remember to farm one of the grasslands that will lead to irrigate the corn for later in the game.

Otherwise, this is where the tech path gets interesting. Obviously agriculture first. Then probably AH then BW? Or does that leave the worker with too much idle time?
 
Moving 1SE has the so-called 'advantage' of possibly revealing some seafood, otherwise I like the 1E idea as it leaves me with an additional riverside grassland for early cottages.
Regarding the corn, I can always irrigate it with a farm 1NE of the lake.

It is an ugly start but I'll try to play it. I'm 3 for 3 so far... can't win them all y'know.
 
Question, wouldn't 1E irrogate the corn through the city tile?

Yes, if you build 1E or 1NE, then that would irrigate the corn tile (once you get civil service) and solve that issue. My comment about irrigating was more in case if the cap was settled in place or 1 SE.
 
An additional advantage of settling 1SE is you get to use the 3F1C cow for the first 10 turns while building worker, could be significant if you are worried that worker techs will lag worker turns.

I think the fogged tile 3S of your settler is potentially coast, which would give 1SE a third chance of popping seafood. Or a 3rd chance of popping another suboptimal coast tile.

For either in place or 1SE there is lots of chop-portunity: Go BW and worker first and chop for a fast first settler while you wait for AH or Ag to come in.
 
just a general question but i put it in a spoiler anyways

Spoiler :
I played the map for a while and like most of you suggest here, quickly expand but i always pay the price for those quick expansions. How do you pay for those quick cities?
 
Round 1
A 73-turns round but several things are settled now.

I decided to send the settler 1SE in the hopes of finding seafood but, of course, there was none to be had.


We once again find ourselves in some kind of peninsula with land available to be used by ourselves. Research went Agriculture>BW>AH. I sound found the greatest neighbor in the world...


He is to the west of us. I ran into some barb problems and lost 5 warriors at bad odds:mad:. The good news is I settled my second city on top of a stone resource just southwest of the capital...


Stonehenge went earlier and I did not have Mysticism yet anyway. I met this guy who built The Oracle. I don't yet know where he is, but it should be somewhere on the other side of Gandhi.


You can guess what I built next...


As soon as Writing comes in, I should be set for some major rexxing. That and I need a ton of roads or Sailing. I stopped here after having founded a city west to block Gandhi since he's already at 5 cities. Here is an overview of the known world so far...


And a dotmap... it might need some tweaking but with The Pyramids it should be decent enough.


What to do next?
-head to Aesthetics for trading purposes
-block Gandhi and fill my land
-do I make roads or go for Sailing?
-What to do with the GP that will pop. In the unlikely case I get a GE, I would think the Great Library wins out. With a Great Spy, settling and focusing EP on Gandhi could be good for a later war (Cuirassiers+spy revolt)
-The great Lighthouse is still available. I could rush build it with a possible GE and Sailing.
 
What was against putting Oporto 1SW? Were a few turns of improving a worse price to pay than missing Gold/Pigs for 20+ turns?
 
What was against putting Oporto 1SW? Were a few turns of improving a worse price to pay than missing Gold/Pigs for 20+ turns?

I didn't wait after the stone to be hooked up since the capital production wasn't that great. Of course I might have gotten away with it and gotten a much earlier contributing city online but could have lost the Great Wall and the Mids. Most likely I would have gotten both anyway but I didn't want to chance luck :)
 
Round 2
I played a bit more. A few things: the tech rate on this map is horrible. I wonder what's up with that. Hopefully HC will start picking up the pace as he built The Colossus.

After Writing, I went Pottery>Sailing>Aesthetics hoping to trade for Alphabet, but no! I had to self tech it as no AI had it by 1AD!

We got a Spy of course, actually 2 of them, the second while I was running 2 Scientists. Whatever. I settled both and directed EP towards Gandhi.


I settled Évora 1NE as I figured I'd get less ocean tiles but ended up losing a horse resource... bad bad bad scouting.
After a border pop, I saw HC was intercontinental so I swapped in Sailing for goodie foreign trade routes.


I also sent a workboat exploring who found Hammurabi...


After finally getting Alphabet, I made this trade:


Besides a couple monopoly techs, the AI is backwards as Monty.


I'm hoping Gandhi will trade Currency for Alphabet as he is researching it currently. I'll put some turns into it just in case he doesn't. The bad news is I have no metal whatsoever, so Cuirassiers are out of the picture unless I get really lucky/trade for iron.

Tech tree


I guess CoL is next. Then CS to farm all those jungles.... I need more workers.


I'm really not liking this map so much... I hope the next one isn't caught up in jungle again.
 
I'd continue exploring. Especially down south, on the off-chance you have an island chain off the coast with iron.

Exploring is key. My current game, I had an island city to build moai in (all water tiles, 2 fish), but waited on building a monument until late. It never popped borders until it was too late, when I discovered another 3 islands I could reach by galley. Coupled with a Hannibal GLH/Cothon, I could have absolutely dominated the game, instead of only being sort of normal relative to everyone else.
 
You have some really peaceful neighbours. The land does not look that bad, although with only 3 happy resources, it might be necessary to switch to HR somewhat early. Lighthouses will buy you time while waiting to build those workers and clear the jungle. Currency will help alot with those inter-continental trade routes.
 
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