Exploration thread

[donsig]

CC The Chamber will be near the northern island in 3 turns. There are shallows (not safe but shallow) to the NE. This maps shows the area and suggested moves for CC The Chamber.



Chamsuri has reached land in the south! Where to now?
EDIT: This pic is after Chamsuri moved one tile E. She then moved a tile S. I neglected to take another screenie. But rest assured she is in safe waters.



We'll have a new curragh ready next turn. (CC The Admiralty?) Should it head north or south?

 

[peter grimes]

That's a tough one: 25% odds to go south, 100% to go north.... I'd say south. We'll need a larger investment there over the long term, as the odds are worse.

Of course, it's still possible that our two boats are looking at the same island from different directions, in which case it won't matter

 

[donsig]

Of course, it's still possible that our two boats are looking at the same island from different directions, in which case it won't matter

Hadn't thought of that possibility!

North may have two options - if the shallows we saw to the northeast are not accessible via the northern(?) island then that's yet another sea lane to investigate. Another option is to send the new curragh around our island (past the point where Chamsuri veered south). There may be more shallows there worth looking at.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I think it is unlikely that they are both looking at the same island - Chamsuri is tooling around an island in the bottom middle, while that other island is off to the west.

btw - our dinky sailors are awesome! wonder if we got to be seafaring as well

tough call on the new boat - I think scouting the island - I would hate to think there is a safe passage off to the west that we dont' find.

 

[Paul#42]

I'd let the new boat go east - right from The Admirality (starting from the east-most coastal tile of course).

 

[Niklas]

I was going to say the same thing Paul did. Bring her out as far as possible and then go for it, straight towards the rising sun!

 

[Aigburth]

Hadn't thought of that possibility!

North may have two options - if the shallows we saw to the northeast are not accessible via the northern(?) island then that's yet another sea lane to investigate. Another option is to send the new curragh around our island (past the point where Chamsuri veered south). There may be more shallows there worth looking at.

It is possible those shallows to the north east are the southern edge of the landmass that Chamsuri is now exploring but not related to the north west island

I would assume everyone is happy for Chamsuri to follow coastline round to the east?

With regards to the new carragh, I like the idea of sending it straight east but what about exploring the remaing fog at the southern end of our island? or do we have a warrior we can use for that?

 

[donsig]

Screenies from turn 51. What heading to give our curraghs?



Should Chamsuri complete the circuit of the island or head SE and risk another turn at sea? I vote for SE.

Should CC The Chamber head out into open waters? I vote to send it NW.

 

[zyxy]

It looks like the GLighthouse would be a good investment. Unfortunately we're probably too late...

I would let Chamsuri make the circuit first. It is not certain that this island does not extend to the SW. After that, indeed go to the SE.

Agree with N-W for CCTC

 

[Niklas]

Agreed with zyxy on all accounts.

 

[peter grimes]

I agree with Zyxy as well. But let us take note of the square SE-SE-SE: it appears to be sea, not ocean!

Maybe we can come back here if there is nothing more compelling to investigate

 

[dl123654]

As promised I took a look at the save now that I have more free time

Its been a while since I've done an observation like this on Civ3 so bear with me as regard to mistakes.

First my obervations as of turn 51 (sorry if it has already been mentioned):
The map is 50 wide and 50 high. Therefore there are 2*(50*50)=5000 tiles.

Our island is 17 wide and 17 high and is a rough diamond. We have about 225 tiles on our island before lakes.

Not including lakes or coast we have ~66 tiles for 3% of the land mass according to F8. Can't remember if the 3% including lakes or coast.

Therefore about 22 tiles is 1%.
Therefore our island is about 10% of the landmass. Granted every estimate we have here increases the error of the 10%, I can see it as much at 15%.
Lets assume that everyone has about the same start.
This means that 50%-75% of the land is the starting islands.

Now we move on to how our islands are arranged. There have been a few theories about this however at this point however there is not enough data yet to figure out how the world is shaped at least one I can't find.

Some have suggested a ring but a ring doesn't have every the same distances away from each other, which might not be necessary true.

I've thought of other configurations where the theory that we are all the same distances apply however as stated before there is not enough information to determine that yet.

As for the Lighthouse I think it will be very important for this game, I also think we are not too late yet because I'm guessing all teams are currently expanding and not thinking about wonders. Furthermore we are most likely ahead in exploration or in the top 2. I think we should start a prebuild soon. It needs to be coastal city which reduces our choices to our curragh city or a newly founded coastal city. I like the second, more specifically the brown dot north of The Admiralty in Paul#42 dot map 15 posts down. Worst comes to worst we are left with pymarids or great library.

 

[General_W]

Nice work DL!

Here's the CAII page, pretty much reinforcing the major assumptions you made:

I agree that we should start a pre-build for the Lighthouse – like you said, hopefully we're ahead of the curve on sea exploration, and are first to realize the real importance of the Great Lighthouse.

However, if we happen to lose, as you've noted, we have some good options for consolation prizes. (Great Library would be my first choice) – even the Statue of Zeus could be considered, depending on how many shields we have invested into the build.

As for where to build it… Brown dot sounds fine, but it seems like if we want a good chance to get it, we might want to get started sooner than that? The Admiralty is currently our #2 shield producer, and will finish it's current Curragh in 3 turns (I believe) and could get started.
But I'll gladly agree to whatever the more advanced players think is the best location.

Spoiler Dot Map :

EDIT: Reviewed our current settlement talk, and I see there's no plans to settle Brown Dot in the near term. I think this strengthens the case for the Admiralty, though it is mired in too much jungle to be ideal.

 

[Paul#42]

Reviewed our current settlement talk, and I see there's no plans to settle Brown Dot in the near term. I think this strengthens the case for the Admiralty, though it is mired in too much jungle to be ideal.

No chance for brown (or orange, strange color I chose) or pink dot to get GLH in the next 80 turns. To weak, their production. The Admirality builds it or none.

I'm not too keen on building wonders for others who rather build units to capture them - but getting GLH would give us safety till Astronomy at least - and no doubt we want to be the first to research it. So that would be a good investment, mainly because noone else can build it.

However I won't be surprised if others already have a promising prebuild going. Their second town (before granary) should be their "wonder town". Some good players will see the power of GLH for this game way earlier than we did. Let's have a look, which wonder we get away with...

So let's start a build in The Admirality after the next curragh.

 

[donsig]

I took a recent minimap, cut it and spliced it back together. Added a couple longitude lines:



It is interesting that our explorations have been to the NW and SE. Any guesses as to where our opponents are?

As of turn 55 Chamsuri is still sailing. It is close to the bottom / top of the world!

 

[donsig]

Our original curragh is still exploring.



What next for the brave Chamsuri? Poke around? Continue SE? Hold the position?

It seems there are very shallow waters to the SE, but finding out requires yet another turn on the high seas. If we send Chamsuri further and she sinks then all she has acheived is for naught, especially since it will be awhile before we float another curragh. We can poke around a bit for sure, but should we sail on?

What does The Council think of holding this shallow tile? If it is only one leg away from an occupied land mass then sooner or later the occupants will find us (whereas if we sink we can't find them until we build more ships). Holding that tile also prevents it from being used by curraghs belonging to rival civs, thereby making it much more difficult for them to explore beyond the tile. Occupying other strategically placed shallows also seems like a good idea.

 

[General_W]

Hmmm… Holding position is a very interesting idea.
I was about to say "nothing ventured, nothing gained" … but you may be very right about any neighbors having to come through this tile to get to us. Question is… do THEY know that?

I'd hate to just sit there and have the contacts attempting to sail via other options. Still – if that's the coast of another Major (occupied) island, as seems likely, then popping 1 tile south/east and then back each turn ought to light up about 3 tiles of their coastline… giving us a good chance at catching someone even sailing by along the coast.

If we combine holding this crossing with trying to hold other crossings with other Curragh, then I support it. Otherwise, we've been so successful this far – I'm lulled into a false sense of confidence, and I'd be inclined to just go for it.

 

[Paul#42]

I say: Poke south once and poke east once and on the third day, though shalt seek distant lands

After all that long journey, our brave sailors have earned a rest, fresh water, rum and some beautiful girls. You don't want to tell them they should stay aboard if the famous Babe Nation might be right in front of them, do you?

 

[zyxy]

I would sail towards the unknown coast. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And I think we should keep building curraghs in TA for now. GLight costs as much as 20 curraghs (if we get it), and we should be able to get contacts with a few suicide runs.

 

[donsig]

Chamsuri has once again braved the open sea. It appears we found FREE near a tropical island.