New Beta Version - August 21st (8-21b)

[JamesNinelives]

So Hiawatha just gave me the "Move or Declare" dialogue from this situation:

Spoiler :

He had a Warrior escorting a Settler on the tile immediately NE of the bottom Hoplite on the turn I moved that army where they are now.

Am I missing something? I know with 100% certainty I would not have the option to ask that if I found an army 4-5 tiles away from my nearest tile, and I've never seen the AI do it from so far out either. Feels like I got cheesed.

I've never had this situation apply to me (tends to only be when I'm 2 or 3 tiles away). Is it possible that it's because he's escorting a settler that is about to found a city, and considers proximity to the settler in a similar way that they look at proximity to a city?

 

[SpankmyMetroid]

So are troll starts like this completely nonviable now unless you go tradition or want to do an improvised OCC

Spoiler :

Maybe a progress tenet can lower the cap from 4 to 3?

 

[Stalker0]

Go mining early for a well. That will help augment your food. And you can always consider farming, which is a lot more useful with the new start scenario.

 

[DeAnno]

So are troll starts like this completely nonviable now unless you go tradition or want to do an improvised OCC

When I get trolly starts like that I go on a settler adventure and hope it works out.

 

[SpankmyMetroid]

Go mining early for a well. That will help augment your food. And you can always consider farming, which is a lot more useful with the new start scenario.

That's fine and all but is the poor AI going to figure that out? They don't have the luxury of rolling another start either...

 

[tu_79]

So are troll starts like this completely nonviable now unless you go tradition or want to do an improvised OCC

Spoiler :

View attachment 533777

Maybe a progress tenet can lower the cap from 4 to 3?

This is pretty doable.
Go for mining, trapping and the tundra pantheon. I'd swear you have some deer and some stones there. You may need the extra growth and extra faith from tradition.

 

[JamesNinelives]

Go mining early for a well. That will help augment your food. And you can always consider farming, which is a lot more useful with the new start scenario.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) that city is next to a river, so it can't build a well - only a watermill later on.

I agree with tu_79, although it really depends what difficulty you are on and how challenging that normally is for you. If I was on Prince I'd probably play that start and do OK, but on Emperor I would reroll immediately haha.

 

[John.B.C]

So are troll starts like this completely nonviable now unless you go tradition or want to do an improvised OCC

Spoiler :

View attachment 533777

Maybe a progress tenet can lower the cap from 4 to 3?

Trapping should be first technology to research in a case like this, if no deer however, it's a re-roll for sure. I mean getting that first worker out just take too much time, even if it's a necessity to do so ASAP.

EDIT: Also I think you made a misstake building the worker instead of buying it with the saved gold. I would had built a granary before the worker. As of now, without knowing about any "deers", you would have had 2 extra food in the city. I mean, it takes 7 turns (?) to also improve a tile with the worker.

My building order would probably be: monument>shrine>granary>worker (buying a warrior if needed).

My research order would be: Trapping>pottery (I might re-think this if even considering settling on that gold for those 2 extra gold/turn; I'm not sure about that one though)

After doing some more thinking:

Maybe, maybe I'd even go shrine before monument to get that pantheon god of the sun asap, giving 3 food on farms on weath, 2 gold/faith from granaries. That would also make that granary even more worthwhile building. You'd even have a shoot at getting a religion then (possibly the only way to get one here).

 

[ridjack]

I've never had this situation apply to me (tends to only be when I'm 2 or 3 tiles away). Is it possible that it's because he's escorting a settler that is about to found a city, and considers proximity to the settler in a similar way that they look at proximity to a city?

I never have, either, which is the only reason I said anything.

 

[crdvis16]

So are troll starts like this completely nonviable now unless you go tradition or want to do an improvised OCC

Spoiler :

View attachment 533777

Maybe a progress tenet can lower the cap from 4 to 3?

I wouldn't lock that 1f/1p tile. I'd work that 3p copper instead and get a worker out faster. Once the worker is out you've either unlocked deer to improve or you can build farms and grow at that point.

 

[tu_79]

I wouldn't lock that 1f/1p tile. I'd work that 3p copper instead and get a worker out faster. Once the worker is out you've either unlocked deer to improve or you can build farms and grow at that point.

This makes me think.
Wouldn't you like to try a rough start challenge?
Maybe we all could try such savegame and see which is the best strategy.

In my case, I would have tried a tundra pantheon, but maybe god of the sun is better.

 

[CrazyG]

Wouldn't you like to try a rough start challenge?
Maybe we all could try such savegame and see which is the best strategy.

I'll join in.

 

[tu_79]

I'll join in.

Frozen challenge on 2019-AUG-21

 

[JamesNinelives]

I never have, either, which is the only reason I said anything.

Well it's funny you brought it up because I've just had a very similar situation in my game. Seems France detected my navy approaching when I was still a relatively long way away from his borders (might have been just within 5 tiles?). I know he could see it because he controlled the nearby city-state at the time. I'm a bit annoyed that it seems impossible to launch sneak attacks with this level of sensitivity though. Maybe it was a bit too easy before, but the AI seem really good at spotting approaching troops now.

Spoiler The Welcome Party :

In any case, warmongers seem to be doing well on this patch, which is good compared to how they were doing before. France, Denmark, and Rome all took a good chunk out of nieghbouring civs and/or city-states. Arabia still did pretty well (as did I) with more peaceful play, but at this point in the game France seems almost unstoppable to me. Everyone in the world has denounced them, and they've been sanctioned by the world congress, but they still managed to vassalise India and continue attacking people just fine.

This is actually the furthest I've played on an Emperor game, so I'm pretty proud of how far I got. It was well balanced overall, with multiple civs competing for the top spot. The Maya (who are now down the bottom) were one of the lead contenders before they lost two of their cities.