SGOTM 10 - Maple Sporks

[Norvin_Green]

I'm attaching a save that I tried to fit our start into a game-generated map. I didn't pay much mind to anything other than trying to re-create the correct tiles. I was going to try and play some but am kind of beat. I hope that we get to try it out.

 

[Norvin_Green]

Our REAL save is available for sturick to download. I think we should discuss our opening a little more before proceeding with any actual turns.

 

[sturick]

Agreed...does anyone have objections or changes to make to the build order and worker order I proposed for Moscow???

I also feel that perhaps rather than a GP farm our capital could make for a great Globe Theatre whipping post. I have little to no experience with this method but with all the food here I imagine it is a prime location for that. More food for thought.

 

[Norvin_Green]

I think I saw on a small map that we would need 5 cities with theatres in order to build wonders. Another reason why I think we should still discuss our opening before proceeding. Hopefully we can come up with a plan soon. We do have 4 months to do this so there isn't any rush. Well, not yet anyway!

 

[Whosit]

Well, and this is just my opinion, sturick can open The Save and move all the units into their scouting positions (I think that we agreed on those), save the game, post a screen shot, and we can discuss further. Nothing wrong with a little more pre-game discussion, but we might as well add as much information as possible. Perhaps one of the scouts will reveal something relevant.

 

[sturick]

So lets try and vote on our first turn scouting moves.

These seem to be locked in place.

One settler settles and the worker chops the forest.

Now these moves are TBD.

NorthLB - I say move 1 NE
SouthLB - I say move 1 SE
Explorer - I say move him 2S1W
Settler - I say merge him with the explorer 2S

Let me know what you think...as soon as we can agree upon our first moves I will do so and post a screenshot.

 

[Whosit]

Those moves all sound good to me. I don't see any other moves that would reveal significantly more tiles.

 

[Norvin_Green]

Here's an alternative:
Northern LB as stated 1NE
How about moving the settler 2SE onto the grassy gold? If there is trouble the southern LB can cover him but if not go 1S.
The explorer 2SW.

 

[sturick]

Moved northern lb 1NE
Settled on plains hill
Moved southern lb 1SE
Moved explorer 2 SW
Moved settler 2S

Here is a new screenshot for you all to enjoy.

You will notice that we have cows next to the corn and gold.

Not sure how we can incorporate them into a dotmap just yet.

 

[Whosit]

I think we can put a city 1S of the westmost gold (so south of the longbow). We lose out on fresh water, but it can pick up the clams and the corn, too, if Moscow won't be using it. Have the explorer go 2SW (forest hill) to see what lies along the river. Looks like a good commerce city could be planted along there somewhere. Oh, and we'll want to farm south of the rice to bring irrigation to our two crops.

All I can think of now. Tired.

 

[Norvin_Green]

I agree with Whosit on where we might want city 2. Hopefully we can get a decent city near the fp's in the direction the explorer is headed.

 

[Whosit]

Oh, 'nother thought now that I'm a bit more awake. Let's keep the Longbow going northy-westy. Odds are that it's just a peninsula up there, but we should know for sure and see if any resources are in the fog.

Supposing it is a dead end, we will want to REX to the west, possibly bee-lining a choke-point if one exists or otherwise blocking the neighbor(s) we are sure to have.

I think we can also keep all our troops exploring. Moscow can survive on seafood for awhile (workboats) so our worker can immediately hook up one of the Gold to get some extra happy going, while the 2nd worker should be finished quickly due to the forest chop.

Also, I think my room just became haunted. That, or there's some animal outside making tappity noises all over the place.

Anyway, knowledge is power, so let's figure out what's out there. Oh, and let's make sure at least one city is running an Engineer. We might get lucky and snag whatever wonder they don't take (hopefully we can still get the Sistine Chapel, a nice addition to a Specialist Economy).

 

[sturick]

Yeah our explorer should learn alot by moving 2SW again.
There doesn't appear to be anything obstructing the hills view.

Given what we know the city location Whosit gave seems to be a good spot.
I wouldn't worry about fresh water as I don't foresee this city growing too much.
It would be a nice commerce city with the two gold.

I also think, generally speaking, that founding as many of our cities on hills will be important.
I imagine we will have to fight some defensive wars along the way to Fission so that would make our lives easier.

Also, in a test game, (I got sloppy and got DOWed) I used the great engineer to build the National Epic rather than the crappy wonders that were available. Ankgor Wat, Shwedagon, and Sankore were available. I produced a boatload of science specs. One helped me bulb Edu but I still lost the Lib race by 7 turns to Genghis.

I assume that we are going to run a SE economy so perhaps we quick build the National Epic in Moscow and swap to Caste for lots of science specs!

I truly feel that we should put the NE and Globe in Moscow. With all that food it seems like a good idea to me.

 

[sturick]

Cross posted with Whosit.

Excellent idea for the northern longbow...like you said its probably a deadend. But it could be a deadend with more seafood!

I as well would like to grab a useful wonder like the Sistine.
My NE idea would be a backup plan.

 

[nocho]

Agree with everything said (reading quickly ). 2nd city to pick up both gold, cows and clams looks very natural. It will be a good city and depending on circumsatances can take that corn from moscow as well.
Explores 2SW also is very natural and scouting to the north with the LB is fine too, we need to know our surroundings the sooner the better.

One question, are ancient wonders still buildable? You may have discussed that, but maybe I missed it. Well, I got the part where the AI spawn GEs and rush build wonders, but are those the ancient ones as well?

 

[sturick]

No wonders like GL and the Mids are unavailable to build.
Notre Dame and the Sistine are the only ones that I think are worth us building.

Especially the Sistine.
On a small map with 5 opponents...cultural battles are going to be very hard fought.

 

[nocho]

Ok, good to know. I think it depends a bit on the map whether sistine is useful. So far it al seems quite watery and if we are on the small part of the big&small map then maybe we have just one or two border cities making Sistine less important. So let's wait and see about that.

So when will you continue playing? I think you could at least move a couple of units... Or on second thought, what are we researching? Did we discuss that at all?

 

[sturick]

I guess since this is new territory for all of us playing in the SGOTM I am unsure of how to proceed.

Should I just play a short 10 turn set to minimize mistakes?
Should I play a couple of turns and check back in with you guys and do that a couple of times?

Techpath I believe was Edu to Lib for a potential freebie.
However, I don't think anyone has yet to achieve grabbing Lib in any of their test games.
Should we still try? Our double gold city should help quite a bit.

I feel that the build plan I outlined earlier is quite strong and will follow that unless others have suggestions to improve it.

 

[Whosit]

I think we should still start with Education, hoping to go into Liberalism. Whoever we meet, we'll put full EPs on (weight 1 in case we meet others) and hopefully we can see their research sooner or later. If they get ahead of us on Liberalism, we can just abandon it, but Education is still very important because we'll want to maximize our beakers with Universities anyway.

After Education, we can do Astronomy for the Observatories.

As for turn sets, there are no rules for the SGOTM, right? I didn't see any, even after I read the rules more thoroughly. I think 10-turn bits is OK for now. If it gets closer to the game's deadline, we can up the ante, but I think if we each do shortish sets, spend a half a day talking, and have quick turnover on the sets, we should do alright.

Whatever we do, I don't think we should get bogged down worrying or debating every possibility. We're still here just to have fun. After all, we named our team in expectations of our results. (Still, maybe we can do better than that.)

 

[sturick]

Good points Whosit!

I think that we should stick with 10 turn sets.
That way if we happen to to go down the wrong path we can correct it with minimal damage!
Plus, if anything major (or minor for that matter) comes up we can pause for discussion.

With that said I will play a couple more scouting turns so we have more information with which to make our 2nd city site decision.

Then once we agree upon that I will finish my set.

Sound good?