NCSG1-Suryavarman II!

[Groogaroo]

You know the more I look at the screenshot the more I swear I can see a strip of water to the west. If thats correct this is a really screwy part of the map

Settling one west sounds okay providing the scout reveals some food. if not 1clam tile is not enough to run a capital.

 

[Bleys]

I will play, how does this work? We take turns? I am really not sure how these run, but I think this would be a good one to learn the ropes on.

 

[Groogaroo]

I'm new to SG's too, but I have peeked at a few games on the board.

There is a roster in the first post, which each take it in turn to play the save for a specified number of turns. when your up you need to post that you got the save and that you will play within 12 hours, and post your report before 48 hours, but the sooner the better to keep the game flowing.

Major decisions generally should be decided by the team, such as going to war/city placement and so on.

Thats the general gist of things.

Krick is up first.

 

[Bleys]

I am also concerned about the saves. I do not use Bhruics patch, as its not compatible with the HoF MOD, and the HoF MOD has most of Bhruics important fixes built in anyway. I can swap it in exclusively for these games though, no prolbem, used to do it a lot until I just started playing ALL games in HoF MOD.

My suggestion for the start is to settle in place, tech Fishing while building a Worker, and start getting mines up on those bare hills. Odds are we have a metal, so having mines in place is like a turbo. We need the production anyway. Worker --> Workboat --> Workboat --> Warriors/Archers to happy cap --> Settler -> Worker --> Settler --> Worker --> Worker. We should have a solid worker/settler farm here, 2 clams and all the hills. Forests should be saved for important wonders, although we probably want to get a cottage or two down ASAP, as EXP is solid for REXing and we will need commerce to support it.

For techs I suggest Fishing --> BW ---> Wheel --> Pottery ---> Masonry --> Archery (??) --> Myst --> Med --> Priest -->, with an eye on the GW and Oracle (chopping both unless we get Marble somewhere) and taking MC with the Oracle for a quick future Colossus. Math and Construction are important techs for us as well.

I think Groo is right, we are on a narrow strip of land with a lot of water tiles. At Noble, we should be able to get those wonders. GW isnt really for barbs, its for spies (espionage is like gold on Pangaea maps). Archery could be skipped for a bit, if we are pushing for the GW (if not its good for barb defense), and if SH gets built fairly fast (indicates a likely IND leader). It sort of depends who we meet. I hope we have a Horse UU AI so our UU can be of bigger benefit, its one of those UUs that can be good and bad.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Good luck, jumbos in the start position means your UU will see some action, it's more of a defensive UU than anything though, use it to stop pillaging horses in your lands, you can kill the mounted units with them and then mop up any spears/pikes with axes or macemen.

 

[Groogaroo]

Good luck, jumbos in the start position means your UU will see some action, it's more of a defensive UU than anything though, use it to stop pillaging horses in your lands, you can kill the mounted units with them and then mop up any spears/pikes with axes or macemen.

Yes it seems the unique aspect will only be of limited help, as you say taking care of pillagers and making a mess of large enemy stacks that have mounted units in them.

But they are still just like normal war ellies, which are pretty destructive at city attacking pre gunpowder.

But I just love ellies for that extra right from the start.

 

[Roxlimn]

Oy! Suryavarman! Wines, Ellies, and Clams! And hills with possible metals as well! So sweet.

Assuming settling in place, the capital's BFC is extremely food and hammer rich, but relatively commerce-poor. Best use is for wonderhunting, settler/worker pump, and GP Farm. Probably best to settle second site for additional food and hammers with a 3rd city site for commerce to support early growth.

Surya's ace play is fast REXing playing into rapid vertical growth. Food potential for city sites is key. He can REX fast because his cities grow fast from cheaper Granaries (less pop consumed from whipping, natch) and he can put those population points to work efficiently with greater numbers of the cheaper Workers to improve the tiles, lickety split. The fact that none of his cities need Monuments helps quite a lot, too.

I'd look into more happy and health resources ASAP. Wines and Ellies already give +2, Expansive and Clams give health +3, but those limits should be peanuts for Surya to overrun!

 

[grandad1982]

Hmmm I forgot we were exp! And we haven't even begun yet - if I'm in? I'd definatley go worker first to start leveraging exp from the start with the double hammer production on the workers - not food surplace in case anyone wondered. Your right about the water to our west. Should be interesting to see what the immediate area around us looks like. I'm well up for some expionage in this as I always neglect it in my games, but pangea (which I don't play often) should be great for this. With this in mind I'd go for the GW as the first wonder - no need for SH we're creative!
@Bleys
Do you think we'll need the Colossus? I'm assuming most of our cities will be land locked on pangea. Its a nice boost but could the hammers be invested else were?

 

[Groogaroo]

I've been trying to get out of the habit of building the oracle these days, its just such a side track in tech!

If we do build it, Code of laws is a better option IMO, early courthouses tie in with the early expansion strat, plus fouding a religion and unlocking caste (If we want to go down the specialist route). MC, okay early forges are handy dandy, but I don't now how useful the collossus will be on this map.

Okay I'm officially getting curious about this start! Weve got the players, weve got the save.

Come on krick lets get this fella up and running! The suspense is killing me!

 

[schwartz]

I've been trying to get out of the habit of building the oracle these days, its just such a side track in tech!

If we do build it, Code of laws is a better option IMO, early courthouses tie in with the early expansion strat, plus fouding a religion and unlocking caste (If we want to go down the specialist route). MC, okay early forges are handy dandy, but I don't now how useful the collossus will be on this map.

Okay I'm officially getting curious about this start! Weve got the players, weve got the save.

Come on krick lets get this fella up and running! The suspense is killing me!

Same here.. I'm tempted to move the scout and post a screen so we can discuss further.
Must resist...

 

[Krick19]

Okay, I'm back and will play. Likely will ask for suggestions for capital once I move the scout. And groogaroo, that is water from what I can tell. And now I'm sad.

 

[Groogaroo]

Okay, I'm back and will play.

Yay! opps! sorry! I'm just soooo impatient!

 

[Krick19]

No, I'm sad cuz of the water.

Here is our scouted start. I don't think the hill is bad, we get ellies with second pop, and cows too.

 

[Groogaroo]

Wooot! (note to self, must learn not to get too excited about discussing game starts!)


settling 1NW on to the hill loses us two hills for early production.

Settling in place woudld give us two nice clam tiles and three hills for a nice early production capital.

What does everyone else think?

PS - we'd be settling on a hill that may have a metal resource on! losing even more production. But that's just guess work.

 

[Krick19]

I think we're on a peninsula or even an island. To the north you can see water as well. And I forgot about the hills. Oh and I think not many want to settle in place because of the tiny island to the east.

 

[Groogaroo]

Must be a peninsula, can't be an island surely, not even the RNG would be that cruel on a Pangea. I'm happy to go with the general consensus. I just think, screw the island, the capital is the priority. But I know what you mean, most of the guys were interested in the possibility of settling 1NW.

Gosh there's a lot of annoying lakes on this start location!

 

[Krick19]

Yeah, thanks for the help, but I don't wanna annoy people by settling before they have a say. So forgive me if I go over the 48. And I just wanna wait for 2-3 people to respond. I prob won't wait for everyone.

 

[r_rolo1]

lurker's comment: The water in the west is all lakes ( see the yield : 2F2C ... Coastal is 1F2C ).

Once in a lifetime I would follow the AI advice.... lakes with lighthouses are better than grassland riverside farms ( you have 3... and you don't need worker turns to improve them ) and it would be a really nice central

 

[S.ilver]

Was about to point out the freshwater, but r_rolo1 beat me to it.

The AI suggested hill looks like the way to go. We've got tonnes of food, and we can irrigate almost everything we can see. Means we can go with mass whippings or specs.

 

[schwartz]

Going to have to disagree with settling on the hill. Here's why:
We gain grassland cows (+4F2H) and plains at the cost of 1 plains hill (4H), 1 grassland hill (settled, nets total +1F1C and -2H) and a clams (5F2C with lighthouse).
Overall, the change is close to even foodwise, with a slight edge to in place due to the 2F2C coastal tiles being better than irrigated 2F1H plains.
Also, the early commerce that we would forgo by moving 1 NW would lead to a slower tech-rate in the early game.
Not worth losing a turn for sure, and I think overall in place will lead to a stronger game.