News: GOTM 82 Pre-Game Discussion

[ainwood]

GOTM 82 Pre-Game Discussion

This is an emperor game. You play as Abu Bakr of the Arabs.


Civilization: Arabia
Rivals: 7, preset
Barbarians: Raging
Difficulty: Emperor
Land Form: Continents, 70% ocean, Standard map.
Geology: 3 billion years old, wet, warm

Civilization
You play as Abu Bakr of the Arabs, which are Expansionist and Religious. You start with the knowledge of Pottery and Ceremonial Burial. As an expansionist civ, you start with a scout and can build more later. The religious trait means that you don't experience anarchy when changing governments, and that religious improvements cost less.

Unique unit
The unique unit for the Arabs is the Ansar Warrior. The Ansar Warrior replaces the standard knight, and requires the technology of chivalry. They cost 60 shields, which is 10 cheaper than the knight. It has an extra movement point over the standard knight, but this is offset in a reduction in defence strength (down to 2).

Conquest-Class Bonuses:

1. Bonus worker.
2. 100 extra Gold

Predator-Class Challenges:

1. AI get two bonus Pikes to start
2. AI get 2 Extra Bonus Unit Support, and 1 extra Bonus Unit Support per city

A reminder: do not post any game information to this thread after you have downloaded the save file. Absolutely no spoiler information for this or any GOTM is to be posted in this thread!

 

[Più Freddo]

Settle in place for a six-turn Settler Factory.

Possibly go directly for Granary without any preceding Warrior?

 

[eldar]

Hmm... another Emperor game, with a similar start to the last one? I'm suspicious....

The Ansar, though, is one of my favourite UUs: 60 shields for a 3-move Knight? Yes please!

I will have plenty of time to concentrate on this game, though, as my wife & daughter will be flying out to the States next week! I'll be following a couple of weeks later but in the meantime I'll be at a loose end.

The scout is limited to a single move in any direction, so might as well go to the mountain.

I will probably settle in place and immediately start chopping for a granary. Hopefully the scout will find a hut and pop a warrior.

 

[Più Freddo]

Hopefully the scout will find a hut and pop a warrior.

I'll be happier if he pops something better, such as a Worker, a Town or a Technology.

 

[eldar]

I'll be happier if he pops something better, such as a Worker, a Town or a Technology.

My main concern is that if I build a granary first, I'll be a sitting duck for any predatory AIs out there with no military. So a warrior may be handy.

With the amount of wood to chop round the start, a second worker after the granary's done may be useful. That'll depend on what other stuff is found.

 

[Più Freddo]

My main concern is that if I build a granary first, I'll be a sitting duck for any predatory AIs out there with no military.

We had a discussion about that in a previous game where some were attacked early by Germany. There are some indications, that you'll attract the aggressive AIs' attention only once you have a military at all. Many built a Warrior and were killed, others didn't and weren't.

Usually, there's one or even three Warriors per Settler in a six-turner. So the Warriors will come, eventually.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hm, I'm no fog-gazer, but is there something nice 2SE? I may try scout-worker-warrior and either another warrior or granary, but not sure.

We had a discussion about that in a previous game where some were attacked early by Germany. There are some indications, that you'll attract the aggressive AIs' attention only once you have a military at all. Many built a Warrior and were killed, others didn't and weren't.

I'm not entirely sure why I didn't face an early SoD, but my initial warrior went straight to Russia and continued into their area while my second warrior stayed home as mp after contact. Russia sent their pikeman west and then north to its doom and I then built another warrior after granary before settler. By the time Russia demanded I had a barracks and a veteran archer as I was considering rushing them and their 2-warrior stack was easy pickings. I was certainly fortunate, but I think we all got into the habit of being farmers a bit much, lately?

 

[Spoonwood]

If I play this, I'll probably move the scout first to the mountain and then settle either west or south, that way I have the hill later for more shields.

 

[Quintillus]

I'll probably move the scout to the mountain, and if there's nothing great there, the worker to the hill. It looks like there is a coast to the east, and I agree with PrinceMyshkin something interesting SE, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a slightly better starting location around. A move south probably would be good at any rate as far north as this start is, even on a warm map.

 

[Lanzelot]

My main concern is that if I build a granary first, I'll be a sitting duck for any predatory AIs out there with no military. So a warrior may be handy.

Looks like we are in a remote corner of the world, so I'm pretty confident that Russia won't be as close by as in GOTM81... In any case, this time we have a scout, so the decision whether to build an early warrior or start a granary right away, can be delayed untill turn 4. By that time we'll have collected 9 shields and the scout will have had 4 moves to check, whether "the coast is clear"...

Regarding victory condition: this looks like a good 20K location, doesn't it? After the scout did some scouting, we could decide whether to build either an early temple or an early settler who will found the 20K site in city #2.
What do you think?

 

[Spoonwood]

For a 20k I'd want more bonus grasslands or better still some cattle and less forests. I'd also prefer a river on a coast. I don't know if we have that here.

 

[stvnjsph]

This should be a challenge, emperor level. I'd like to move the worker 1S to the mountain, to get an idea of the terrain between the river and what looks to be a lake. The scout then 1N to the mountain to see what's on the other side of the river. Both should be able to see two hexes in all directions. Unless anything unbelievable pops up, probably settle in place. Start building a granary is ok, and then warriors, another worker, maybe another scout, more warriors, before starting on a 2nd city.

 

[TxCraig]

Hey guys, Do you think it is worth it to move away from the river in order to be on the coast? For some reason I do not like the idea of having to build an aqueduct in the capital.

I'm not a fog-gazer either, but after looking at Cracker's See the Wheat example, it does look like a sheaf of wheat 2SE. And is that a river delta on the far side of the 1E square?

Settling in place looks good because of the defensive bonus and the fresh water, but 1SE or 1E puts us on the coast, auto-clears a forest, and lets us mine the hill later.

Any advice on the river / coast tradeoff? Especially in the context of a 20k victory attempt?

I have never won on emperor; looking forward to making The Great Leap

 

[Lanzelot]

If you are trying for a 20K in the capital, I would strongly advise to stay on the river! In that case you will not be able to compete for the Colossus and the Lighthouse, but if you move to the coast, you may find that you won't be able to win the race for Colossus anyway, because it means you will remain at size 6 for a very long time and the production is just not high enough!
For 20K it is essential to reach size 12 ASAP, especially on Emperor, where the AI only needs 80% of the shields that you need. You can't wait for the Aquaeduct.

A different strategy would be to move the capital to the coast and then found the second town on the river and use that for the 20K site. But that depends on the overall starting position and cannot be decided yet from the few tiles that can be seen in the screenshot.

Or a combination of both: settle in place, and once your scout has found out, where the river flows into the sea, check whether that location makes a good 20K site. If it does, send your first settler there, otherwise use the capital as 20K site. My guess is, that the mouth of the river is only 2-3 tiles to the north-east and that the game tile can then be shared between the capital and the 20K town. So that strategy might be best.

Lanzelot

 

[AutomatedTeller]

staying in place for a 20K is probably the wrong thing to do, but I wouldn't move to the coast - I'd move 1 NW, in between the hill and the mountain - that way, you get 3 hills plus the mountain in your fat cross and you don't have that water.

I'd probably go N with the scout, though, to see if there is a coastal spot N that you can plop your city on the river and with a food bonus - rivers usually end up in the ocean.

On Emperor, I'd go warrior/warrior/granary - 1st warrior scouts near by areas than goes for MP, 2nd warrior for MP duty. Particularly with raging barbs