SGOTM 20 - Unusual SuspeX

[AlanH]

Welcome to your BtS SGOTM 20 Team Thread. Please use it for all internal team communication, turn logs and discussions. Subscribe to it to receive notifications, and do not visit the other team threads for this game until you have finished. Please also subscribe to the Maintenance Thread for this game, where teams and staff may post non-spoiler information of general interest.

You can find the Game Details in the first post of the Maintenance Thread. If any changes occur in the game settings or rules, I shall post them in that thread, and edit that post.

Please wait until your team leader/administrator/scribe has reserved a couple of top posts in this thread for game admin information. Then post here to let your team know you have arrived.

Good luck with the game.

 

[leif erikson]

Greetings team.

In general, we have been kind of layed back with rules. We like to give players 24 hours to either pick up the save with an "I've got it" or tell us that they will be unable to play and then have another 24 hours to post a pre-play plan. Then you have 72 hours to play the set and it is ok to stop during the set to ask questions should something unusual come up.

We need to try to keep the save moving, while also adequately discussing the situation and identifying the testing needs for the turn set. Should you find yourself in a situation where real life intervenes, simply post that and the team will try to work around it.

Cactus Pete will be joining us but had to go out of the country and will return in about 5 days or so.

edit - Cactus Pete suggested our team name should be Unusual SuspeX.

Questions, comments, etc...

 

[leif erikson]

After six pages of discussion, neil lead us off and showed us our surroundings and found three neighbors, including one that is not too happy with us. His turn set report can be found here.

 

[neilmeister]

I am easy on the team name, though Unusual SuspeX does sound cool.

I have only played with one member of the team before: SteelHorse.

Strengths: testing, early game, questioning
Weaknesses: reach conclusions too quickly some times, make mistakes

 

[leif erikson]

I hear you are our religion expert?

 

[kcd_swede]

I'm in. I'm pretty familiar with the Suspects here, but having followed a lot of team threads in the past I feel like I know everyone from Xteam as well. I'm confident that our play styles are very similar and wholly compatible. Holy compatible, too.

I'm very rusty, and should not be trusted to take large complicated and critical turnsets.
I have an erratic work/travel schedule which could mean I'm unavailable at times.

My SGOTM strengths are taunting and ... well, that's about it.

I think we are making history with 3 GOTM staff members on one team, 4 if you count GOTM staff alumni. Lets ROCK!

Hoping for an Unusual and Xciting game! Team name means nothing to me... but c'mon man... we finish in the top half we get laurels. The gold dominators are dispersed... so a gilded one is within our grasp. I expect to add to my wall of fame with this one. If not, it better be a lot of laughs. Both Laurels and Fun are the optimum, and within reach.

 

[Yamps]

Checking in. SuspeX is but I'm fine either way.

 

[leif erikson]

Checking in. SuspeX is but I'm fine either way.

Nice to meet you. Been reading your posts for years but never had the chance to play along side. Looking forward to it.

I'm very rusty, and should not be trusted to take large complicated and critical turnsets.

My SGOTM strengths are taunting and ... well, that's about it.

Hope I don't get too many Civ5 clicks in.

Get them a bit confused sometimes.

I think we are making history with 3 GOTM staff members on one team, 4 if you count GOTM staff alumni. Lets ROCK!

There was once an all staff team, I think it was back in the Civ3 days?

Was a wee lad then, only remember being intimidated.

Hoping for an Unusual and Xciting game! Team name means nothing to me... but c'mon man... we finish in the top half we get laurels. The gold dominators are dispersed... so a gilded one is within our grasp. I expect to add to my wall of fame with this one. If not, it better be a lot of laughs. Both Laurels and Fun are the optimum, and within reach.

Yeah, let's go for it and have some fun too.

 

[Folket]

Checking in.

I'm kinda tired right now so I have nothing to add.

 

[Deckhand]

Checking in.
(all staff accounted for)

If you want any inside tips, just PM me.


I also like Unusual SuspeX.
Let Alan know soon if you want a team name change.

I've never managed to even read all of our team threads. But at the moment, I am up to date on all team threads.

 

[BSPollux]

Hey guys!
I'll try to read all team threads and watch out for misunderstood rules at the start. Don't want to have the game decided by unclear wording. Still, if anything is unclear PM me, I'll try to respond as soon as possible!

Something else: I'd like to gather intresting facts during the game for comparisson later. Just like we did after the game for sgotm#19 in the lurker thread. I think it will be a fun read later, and way easier then reading 20k posts of all team threads
If one of you or all of you as a team dont want me to include you in that, please let me know. Not sure it it will work at all, depends on how much time I got and how much everyone spams.

 

[leif erikson]

OK, here is the starting screen shot.


Seafood or roast lamb?
We have a lot of options for moving those units too.

 

[neilmeister]

This isn't so much a religious game, rather a closet domination/conquest one.

- ALL shrines that are built (and at least 3)
- 70 temples
- each city 2 religions

It would seem to me that Hindu & Buddhism will go early to religion hog(s), and they may have been given Stone/Marble to encourage them to build Stonehenge/Oracle to generate an early Prophet. These AI will most likely be very far away and/or behind an impassable boundary.

The only course that seems obvious to me now is to Oracle CoL and build the shrine with the Oracle generated prophet. We will have to race to Oracle if we want it.

Silver won't help too much because it means we must detour to BW first as the silver is forested.

Sheep require AH and BW (for one of them). We start with fishing.

So, it is hard to not think we should grab the fishies first and race direct for Oracle. 1E will still retain Silver in the BFC.

Obviously, we need to move the units first.
- Archer SE
- Warrior SW
- Scout NE-NE or NW-NW or ?? I think I prefer NE because if we settle 1E, it could mean not being able to settle another city to the east

 

[leif erikson]

This isn't so much a religious game, rather a closet domination/conquest one.

- ALL shrines that are built (and at least 3)
- 70 temples
- each city 2 religions

Thought all games were closet Domination games.

It would seem to me that Hindu & Buddhism will go early to religion hog(s), and they may have been given Stone/Marble to encourage them to build Stonehenge/Oracle to generate an early Prophet. These AI will most likely be very far away and/or behind an impassable boundary.

Spoken like a true, sneaky mapmaker.

The only course that seems obvious to me now is to Oracle CoL and build the shrine with the Oracle generated prophet. We will have to race to Oracle if we want it.

Sounds reasonable enough. Of course, there could be a civ out there that already has Priesthood and Marble pre-improved that could get Oracle on turn 8...

Now who would do something like that?

Silver won't help too much because it means we must detour to BW first as the silver is forested.

Sheep require AH and BW (for one of them). We start with fishing.

Rushing to Oracle past BW will feel uncomfortable, like to have that whip.
We are Organized, so how about REX?

Won't be much for Workers to do? Should we delay their construction? Unless we want to build some roads?

So, it is hard to not think we should grab the fishies first and race direct for Oracle. 1E will still retain Silver in the BFC.

Fishing starts always seem so slow to me.

Obviously, we need to move the units first.
- Archer SE
- Warrior SW
- Scout NE-NE or NW-NW or ?? I think I prefer NE because if we settle 1E, it could mean not being able to settle another city to the east

The Archer is on a road, perhaps move him to the hill 2-south?
Warrior NW to the hill to peek over and see what is there.
The Scout NE and then we can decide once he has a look?

 

[neilmeister]

Detouring to BW will probably be commerce neutral, as we will get the silver up. Got to love the whip

Fishing starts are slow compared to wet corn, but the only food we have is seafood or Ah requiring sheep, which are on hills so not so good. Fish will definitely give a faster REX.

Agree with your unit movements...much better than mine.

 

[Folket]

I think our first decision is whether we explore south or not. According to our divination it is dangerous but not knowing the danger is dangerous as well. I wonder what they have done to make it dangerous.

There is no need for shrines as far as I know. CoL might still be good for REX. With nine opponent and relative small land mass we can expect the land to fill up. If we choose between rex and oracle I say rex.

but they lack any higher education. Does that refer to our opponents starting with writing or something?

I think scout should move 2E. Archer 2S. At the moment I prefer to SIP as with the mountain wall to our west we get a weird city taking sheep if we settle 1E. But we will need a test game to see how fast the alternatives are.

 

[neilmeister]

NW with he warrior will hopefully tell us if the wall continues north.

If we don't pursue the fish, then 1SW looks better than SIP IMO, gets the deer instead of the forested sheep, and allows us to settle another city for the fish & clams 1S of the fish.

As you say, we need a test game and I can build it once we have moved the units.

 

[SteelHorse]

Hi All
Checking in and looking forward to playing with both former and new team members.

BSP - thanks for what looks to be a fun map, fully support the lurker thread ideas. Anything that we as a team could do to help i would support. Maybe each team creating a save on a given turn for example for comparison (just an idea). I think that thread is a great place to vet differing strategies.

 

[Folket]

NW with he warrior will hopefully tell us if the wall continues north.

If we don't pursue the fish, then 1SW looks better than SIP IMO, gets the deer instead of the forested sheep, and allows us to settle another city for the fish & clams 1S of the fish.

As you say, we need a test game and I can build it once we have moved the units.

Not wild about adding 3 mountain tiles to our capital but your points are valid. The deer seems to have a forest as well.

 

[kcd_swede]

Hey guys!
I'll try to read all team threads and watch out for misunderstood rules at the start. Don't want to have the game decided by unclear wording. Still, if anything is unclear PM me, I'll try to respond as soon as possible!

Something else: I'd like to gather intresting facts during the game for comparisson later. Just like we did after the game for sgotm#19 in the lurker thread. I think it will be a fun read later, and way easier then reading 20k posts of all team threads
If one of you or all of you as a team dont want me to include you in that, please let me know. Not sure it it will work at all, depends on how much time I got and how much everyone spams.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I suspect that when one team is finishing, another team will still be debating their start position, making your assembky of info really tedious. And you probably are not lucky enough to have anticipated all the important critical junctures and will have to sift thru 20k posts if you want to include it after the fact.

I hope it works out for you. It never did for me. but maybe you have more of that precious commodity called "time".