How can I maximize the number of ancient ruins I claim?

[Phanixis]

Ok, I was playing Civilization V with a friend today. We just started the game. I managed to claim 3 ruins using a warrior and a scout, receiving the benefit of a map, 70 gold, and the mining tech. My friend, who started next to me on the same continent, apparently found 5, including a population growth one, a faith one which bagged him the first pantheon, at least one culture hut which propelled him to landed elite very early on. These gave him a huge starting advantage.

When I asked him what he did, he just told me he "scouted aggressively" using a single scout and his starting warrior, apparently after watching some lets plays. My question is this: is there any way to reliable reproduce his success with scouting ruins, so I can gain the same early game advantage that he has obtained.

Thanks.

 

[ravenmagus]

Get two scouts, not just one.

Beyond that it's mostly just luck.

 

[Memoryjar]

Don't stop scouting. On Pangea or Fractal you can have another 3 or 4 ruins far away after 3 or 4 near your start position.

 

[FaceUnderMask]

I did some tests before. Six (6) games are in no way enough for the law of big numbers, but on average I've gotten four (4) ruins, with a total number of 25, 14 of which were grabbed by warrior, and 11 of which were grabbed by scout. I've only played till turn 25, and I guess it wasn't on a high difficulty either. Yeah, sometimes you can find more ruins later in the game in some isolated corners like tundra or snow, but they have less impact on the game.

Terrain means a lot. In the jungle/forest start your warrior is not so useful, while on plains with some solitary hills warrior alone could find 3-4 ruins. Basically, your chances are almost the same with a single warrior on open terrain as with warrior and scout on rough terrain.
Luck also means a lot. While the mean value is 4 ruins, the deviation is high; that means, in some games I've found up to 6-7 ruins, while in other ones only 2. This is also a factor of aforementioned terrain, but still.
Ah yes, barbs also do a great job at slowing your scouting.

I really know that feel, got a friend like that too. While we play together he almost always 'scouts aggressively' and gets 6-7 ruins total, with a neat bonuses like culture or faith or 100 gold, and you get only 3, one of which is a map of nearby ocean or barb camp locations.
When BWN was out for sale, he almost immediately started playing shoshones, because they got an imbalanced synergy with his luck.

 

[szcott]

Best way is to use a Civ that has a movement bonus like Shoshone, Inca, or Astecs?(are they the ones that move through woods). Also if you luck out and start near Kilamenjaro really helps. Oh and the Polyneasions for there instant water access.

 

[Resipsa]

Best way is to use a Civ that has a movement bonus like Shoshone, Inca, or Astecs?(are they the ones that move through woods). Also if you luck out and start near Kilamenjaro really helps. Oh and the Polyneasions for there instant water access.

American Scouts are probably the second best scouting unit in the game, +1 sight keeps you away from barb camps and hits way more ruins. If you want to hit a bunch of runes play the US and open triple scout and forgo your shrine.

 

[TeriXeri]

Don't stop scouting. On Pangea or Fractal you can have another 3 or 4 ruins far away after 3 or 4 near your start position.

Agreed, on my Huge Boreal map, which has like 85% of the map as land, I found a ruin as late as like 1950 with my tanks cause I couldn't scout proper with a scout unit in an isolated corner of the map which ended up with like 50 barbarian units by that time (raging barbs).

On more normal map types, ruins tend to stay longer on islands etc as well.

Sometimes 1 scout early isn't enough on bigger map sizes/types.

 

[Phanixis]

In regard to using America/Shoeshone scouts: These obviously give you an advantage, but my friend was playing Russia, so clearly this can be done without choosing a particular civilization.

Also, I am only really interested in obtaining ruins at the beginning of the game, where their impact is far and away the most important. You can obviously find them later on, but at that point there bonuses really cease to matter.

I do appreciate much of the advice that has been offered, but I already exercise most of it. I try and keep my starting warrior on open terrain so he can move 2 tiles each turn. My scout is then set off into difficult terrain. My warrior returns only when it is time to protect my first worker (maybe he shouldn't return at all?). My scout continues scouting until the whole continent is revealed. This still only really nets me 3-4 ruins if I am lucky, and typically half of them are worthless.

About the only thing I am not doing is building a second scout, but I hate delaying my worker, and I have experimented with this before and it often does not pay out. It seems the ruins get picked over really quickly.

 

[Browd]

Small tips: when possible try to end a turn with your warrior and scout sitting on hills -- much better visibility to decide where to go next. If you see a ruin 3 tiles away, don't bother moving 2 tiles to be right next to the ruin -- that's wasted movement if you then pop an upgrade. Instead, end your turn 2 tiles away from the ruin (pushing back a bit more fog, particularly if 2 tiles away means you are on top of a hill) and then use 2 movement points the next turn to claim the ruin.

 

[chazzycat]

it's just one game and there is a lot of luck involved. I wouldn't worry about it too much, there's only so much you can do.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Always move your scouting units one hex at a time, even if you can see the hex you want them to end up on at the end of their move (e.g. hill). Sometimes after the first hex, you see a ruin in a different direction and can head more directly for it.

 

[Machiavelli24]

There is a fair amount of variance in the amount of ruins you'll get each game but one way to improve your odds is to avoid exploring tiles other players have already looked at. For example, if your scout sees a rival scout to the south you can make an educated guess that tiles "behind" that rival scout don't contain any ruins (because the rival scout would have seen them and taken them). You can use this to scout east or west instead of continuing south, where you hopefully will have a better chance of finding ruins.

 

[ravenmagus]

Small tips: when possible try to end a turn with your warrior and scout sitting on hills -- much better visibility to decide where to go next. If you see a ruin 3 tiles away, don't bother moving 2 tiles to be right next to the ruin -- that's wasted movement if you then pop an upgrade. Instead, end your turn 2 tiles away from the ruin (pushing back a bit more fog, particularly if 2 tiles away means you are on top of a hill) and then use 2 movement points the next turn to claim the ruin.

In this same vein, try to move over hills during your movement for the turn if you can as a Scout (or Inca Warrior). The pathing will often make scouts walk around the hill if you don't go one tile at a time, when popping onto the hill will reveal a lot more area.

 

[Pietato]

I use 3 scouts. Raging Barbarians, Huge map though.

 

[Gamewizard]

American Scouts are probably the second best scouting unit in the game, +1 sight keeps you away from barb camps and hits way more ruins. If you want to hit a bunch of runes play the US and open triple scout and forgo your shrine.

Just finished a game as America, and I agree, double scout opening will net you more ruins than any other civs' double scout opening. Now you just have to cross your fingers and hope the die rolls in your favor.

 

[GhostSalsa]

Just finished a game as America, and I agree, double scout opening will net you more ruins than any other civs' double scout opening. Now you just have to cross your fingers and hope the die rolls in your favor.

America can't see through forest. They only get more sight on flat land - flat land simultaneously provides a sight advantage to all your AI competitors.

It doesn't matter who you are. You get more ruins when the AI fails to scout areas before you. To that end, being Aztec or Shoshone in jungle is probably the best starting condition outside of broader map factors like mountain chains.

Being America or any other civ in a jungle start is awful, it takes you five turns to reveal 15 tiles. America starts with a warrior. Starting with a scout (Pathfinder or Jaguar) is better. Inca's also nice but the AI has no problem with hills either since it starts with a scout on higher difficulty.

 

[Resipsa]

America can't see through forest. They only get more sight on flat land - flat land simultaneously provides a sight advantage to all your AI competitors.

It doesn't matter who you are. You get more ruins when the AI fails to scout areas before you. To that end, being Aztec or Shoshone in jungle is probably the best starting condition outside of broader map factors like mountain chains.

Being America or any other civ in a jungle start is awful, it takes you five turns to reveal 15 tiles. America starts with a warrior. Starting with a scout (Pathfinder or Jaguar) is better. Inca's also nice but the AI has no problem with hills either since it starts with a scout on higher difficulty.

They get additional sight when on top of hills, Its a huge sight range.

 

[GhostSalsa]

They get additional sight when on top of hills, Its a huge sight range.

Sure. And if you see a ring-3 ruin there, that's obviously a UA benefit. But next turn as you move down from the hill into forest or whatever you see 0 new tiles. Maybe the ruin even gets snagged before the turn after that. Well, what they say about biting off more than you can chew...

America are better scouts than any other civ aside from Aztec and Shoshone but by less than Aztec and Shoshone are better than America. Scouting units on turn 0. But even so! No one is better than the civ that is lucky - and the main factor of luck in scouting is what the AI doesn't do. In my recent Austria game I had almost half my continent to myself - the other 3 AI never made it past a set of mountain chains until turn 80. I got so so so so so so so so so so so so so many ruins. Just terrain.

 

[Resipsa]

But next turn as you move down from the hill into forest or whatever you see 0 new tiles.

Part of the art of scouting is getting an impulse on what direction to move. America more than any other civ helps you find this direction . I'm not saying that are the best mind you I'm simply stating they provide me with a better direction on where to go next. I can't put any hard and fast rules on how to move but if you've played enough you know the type of intuition I'm referring to. Jaguars and pathfinders are great but you can hard build 2 scouts for the price of a pathfinder or a jaguar.

 

[George Abitbol]

Strangely, AI scouts seem to ignore ruines close to their capitol and aim for the closest to your city. Once, I got a ruin "stolen" by a mayan scout, but I discovered two ruins in range of Palenque at turn 20-25... If somebody steal your ruin, don't give up! Keep searching and you'll be rewarded!