Exploration 50BC

[Zwelgje]

Foreign advisor reporting for duty.
We need to decide where we want to explore once we have built a trireme. Also knowing where we want to explore will help us decide where to built a trireme (if we want to explore in the north, building a trireme in the south will be quite silly to do...)

As I see it we've got a few options:
Option A
try to find Viking land north of Roskilde. Perhaps the land we can see NE of Dellham is Viking land as well, let's find out!
Option B
try to find Indian land. The Indians are probably to the east of our continent so we can check if the land we see NW of Legendary city is Indian.
Option C
Maybe we just want to expand peacefully for the time and locate landmasses not taken by other civs yet. The land we can see SW of Elysium, E of Civvium and NE of Marl Downs could be nice candidates for this.

Vote if you want to!

 

[Jayne]

I want to vote for all three!!!!!!

But for now I shall go with C, so we can expand our empire!

 

[Rout]

I went for C too, war-expansion at this juncture of the game would be wasteful of resources, as there will be plenty of uninhabited land around yet.

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by Rout
I went for C too, war-expansion at this juncture of the game would be wasteful of resources, as there will be plenty of uninhabited land around yet.

I wouldn't completely discount the war option. Even if there is lots of free-land (which we don't really know for sure anyway), war is still a good option for stunting the growth of the AI. They tend to switch to "war" mode, which means they slow down the building of cities, trade routes and infrastructure (roads etc). In short, we make them waste their resources.

 

[ainwood]

P.S. My thoughts on the options:

Primarily, in terms of exploration, I'd like to see two tiremes at least. The first could be built up-north, and skirt around the coast to locate (but not necessarily fully-explore) the viking continent, before heading around down to where we think the Indians are.

The second (and second in priority) would be in the south-east, where we check the lands we can see of the coast. We should move settlers, escorts and dips to strategic peninsulas etc to allow the exploring tiremes to do the odd ferrying mission.

Remember - even if we expand peacefully, we still want to keep tabs on the AI. We need to know when they are running out of land on their continent, if they are likely to be at war with their neighbours, how much infrastrucutre and cities they have, where those cities are etc etc.

 

[Dell19]

The Vikings look like a good target and a war with them could be closer than you think. We now have ships and just need a few good attacking units. So it would be nice to explore in their direction to see where they actually are.

 

[GaryNemo]

I voted for Option C: expand peacefully.

Our units must be gradually reorganized for any campaign. This one seems safe, so needs the least preparation. Actually, the decisions to implement even this are potentially beyond my grasp this turn.

Further, the AI is busy building wonders, and we MUST get Cop's, then Mike's, then Leonardo. So one Trireme in Civvium, and fiddle around S and SE while units arrive, all other effort into Wonder Caravans and settling the NW.

The Trireme can sail, empty, in 2 turns. Which way will it go?

 

[duke o' york]

I agree that we should go both ways, with the Vikings taking slight priority over the Indians, and the second trireme going southward. Obviously the boat built in the north will go that way and the one on the south coast should go south. Will we just send the boats out empty, or with troops/dips/settlers. Unfortunately the triremes only carry two and will disintegrate if attacked but bonus huts are always popular.

 

[MonkE]

I'm with the majority on option C for the near future. If we wish to harass the AI, however, one way is to send a diplomat to subvert a city. Then the AI will concentrate there and forget about our lovely homeland.

 

[funxus]

I agree on exploring around our neighbor islands, to see how well the vikings and indians are doing. Maybe they only have space for 5 cities, or maybe they have a whole continent. Bring a dip to pop huts, and maybe bribe a city. A city close to them is a good place to launch an attack from In the meantime I think we should expand peacefully, until we have the capacity to attack...

 

[Juize]

I agree that we should go both ways, with the Vikings taking slight priority over the Indians, and the second trireme going southward. Obviously the boat built in the north will go that way and the one on the south coast should go south. Will we just send the boats out empty, or with troops/dips/settlers. Unfortunately the triremes only carry two and will disintegrate if attacked but bonus huts are always popular.

Agree. We should but an unit to the southern one. Voted A.

 

[Rout]

The war situation with the vikings means that we could send out a boat with a suit in it and get it blown away immediately. I think that we should go for peace with the Vks then explore their homeland. Subversion of cities is cheaper when at war but we can easily goad them into declaring war later.
Building military units for a war effort will just hold exploration back.

 

[Elsaak]

I prefer pacific option C ;
go expending, and in the same time, prepare a good treasur for the subversion of our dear neighbours

 

[Leowind]

I agree with Ainwood, except for the priorities. First priority is Southern Trireme to explore and expand SE. Second priority is a Northern Trireme to locate Viking then Indian lands, and explore out from our coasts just a little bit. I"ll vote C

Top focus, of course, is wonder caravans and trade.

 

[naervod]

I think we should take out the Vikings, however with subversion and propaganda, rather than military force.

 

[MonkE]

I voted C, with my first priority to settle lands in the SE.

 

[Octavian X]

Can I really vote for something else?

C. We need to take advantage of the land, while using war to block any AI expansion in the lands that we know as our manifest destiny.