Nobles' Club 317: Lincoln of America

[AcaMetis]

The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Lincoln of America, whom we last played in NC 265; we last played the Americans under Roosevelt in NC 307. The Americans start with Agriculture and Fishing.

• Traits: Lincoln is Charismatic and Philosophical. Charismatic gives every city, Monuments and Broadcast Towers +1 , and decreases the exp required for units to level by 25%. Philosophical gives all cities +100% generation and a +100% bonus to Universities.
• The UB: The Mall, a Supermarket with +20% and +1 with Hit Musicals, Hit Singles and Hit Movies. Generally regarded as a useless UB that comes far too late to make any sort of difference, it nevertheless manages to be a welcome addition to a rush-buy strategy for it's increased gold output, or a standard Caste/State Property hammer economy to help offset Emancipation anger.
• The UU: The Navy SEAL, a Marine with 1-2 First Strikes and a free March promotion, allowing the unit to heal while moving. Usually dismissed as irrelevant since few games ever reach the era in which these guys show up, Navy SEALS nevertheless set a new standard for terrors from the sea that Ragnar's Berserkers only manage to reach due to taking City Raider promotions into the gunpowder era.

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Fracal, Rocky climate, Medium sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

The usual strategic resource swaps.

Spoiler isolated? :

Not isolated.

The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 317 Lincoln Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :

In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Prince. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

Spoiler what is demigod :

The difference between Immortal and Deity difficulty is akin to the difference between Noble and Immortal. Players eventually reached a point where Immortal was too easy, but Deity was still out of reach, and so neither difficulty provided a fun experience. "Demigod" is an otherwise standard Deity game where the AIs are only given their Immortal level starting units, in an attempt to bridge the gap.

Spoiler for players on Monarch or above :

You should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:

Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

If you're playing at higher level than Monarch, consider also giving them Hunting at Emperor, Agriculture at Immortal, and The Wheel at Deity.

Spoiler huts and events :

Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.

 

[AcaMetis]

2 city elephant and potential PH up north, but also jungle. Of course jungle later on are just grass tiles with the potential for resources, which that particular stretch may or may not have. Good thing the Warrior is in position to scout. I'm thinking Warrior 1NE to scout the jungle, see if PH settle gets a gem in BFC or something, and if not settle on the elephant for a faster T1 2 city settle (and other minor benefits, but mainly the T1 settle). If PH does yield better resources settle the PH, though I imagine those resources will come from the grass hills to the east rather than the jungle, considering the latter is useless until Iron Working.

What do the experts think ?

 

[Fippy]

Both Jumbos and PH are unconvincing..if the warrior finds nothing good i would stay in place.
(and hope for something good in the south fog, at minimum one floodplain kept)

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

I’d be tempted by 1E. You know you’re not giving up anything to the west. If that’s right you’re just losing the elephants. With no hunting and charismatic for early happiness getting them in the BFC doesn’t seem that important. It looks like you might get at least one extra floodplain (if my phone based fog gazing doesn’t let me down) and gets rid of all the junk coast tiles.

I’’d move the warrior 1E on to the plains hill first. I think that reveals the same tiles north as moving 1NE but perhaps a bit more to the east (although not sure how peaks work).

 

[danjuno]

Part of me wants to settle 1 SE to get FP in first ring, but it's kinda risky compared to 1E. Good food start regardless. Agree 1E for the warrior.

 

[drewisfat]

From my way of thinking warrior 1S is forced. Sure you only scout one tile, but the risk is too high that your second food is seafood and you wind up killing it even when you start with fishing.

 

[Nick723]

If nothing revealed, settling 1S looks tempting to me

 

[jnebbe]

Immortal 1AD

Spoiler :

8 cities/42 pop
Tricky starting, got the cow+fish city by huanya and then atlanta but they took way longer to get up and running than I thought. I went CoL fast but both zara and hannibal both got it before me and huanya didn't get alphabet until t105 so I had to wait quite a while for some trades I wanted.
Already in caste and running some scientists, with philosopical and all these fish it shouldn't be too hard to get 8 or so great people, and upgrade some elephants into cuirs
Running an artist in seattle to make sure I won the culture battle for that rice lol