Movements and Scouting
If 1N1E = 1NE, 1S1E = 1SE, and 1N1W = 1NW then we are talking about the same moves for the units.
I have decided to switch to the format of putting a space between the number and the cardinal direction.
Personally, I find the notation "1S1E" to be confusing, as there is no standard for how people separate the two moves of multi-move units, such as a Scout or a Missionary.
For example, some people use " + " as a separator, others use ", " as a separator, and still others might not have a separator, meaning that "1S1E" means "move 1 south and then 1 east" for some people, while it means moving "once to the south-east" for other people.
And, before you go saying "Why would you ever move 1 S and then 1 E with a unit?," I will counter that you might do so in many cases, such as when there is a Forest to the south-east but a flatland square to the south and you want to end up one square to the south-east but also get in some extra scouting along the way.
I'm hopeful that "1 SE" will be clearly understood as meaning moving "once to the south-east."
As for multi-moves, we should decide upon a format. Perhaps something like "1 SE G, 1 E G For" or "1 SE G > 1 E G For" might be clear as meaning moving "one square south-east onto the Grassland square, then move one square east onto the Grassland Forest square."
If anyone has good guides on scouting, please share. I have one guide linked on the first page of our thread. The pictures in it aren't working for me, but it may still be of some utility to read:
Guide to Scouting
One big point to keep in mind is that you can see extra far across of water squares. This fact doesn't always help much, as coastlines are generally not straight and thus you have to visit the coast reasonably regularly when scouting, but at times, you can skip scouting along the coast, visit the coast a bit further away, and then still see all of the area over the water that you would have otherwise seen, while also having gotten more in-land scouting accomplished.
People seem to more easily understand that they can see 2 squares away from on top of a Hills square (except when terrain "blocks" the view, i.e. you can't see over the tops of the trees in an adjacent Forest/Jungle or over the tops of the Hills of an adjacent Hills square), but the water-scouting tactic seems a lot harder for people to remember, so I threw together a quick couple of pictures that represents a bit of an ideal case with a straight coastline.
How can people say our homeland is beautiful and rich when there are no vineyards to be seen?
Care to make any further accurate predictions?
Logs
Okay, in my BUFFY Options (Ctrl + Alt + o), which is actually entitled "BUG Mod Options, on the Logging tab, I have got "Enable Logging" and "Start Automatically" both selected, with a Path value of "C:\temp"
If I play some turns, I get a text file which matches our Leader's Name inside of C:\temp
For example: C:\temp\Test-SG23.txt
[Rant about the logs]Ideally, I was hoping for a log file that would log things that I deem to be important for testing, such as "On Turn X, switch to building a Settler," or "On Turn Y, work the GH Mine instead of the G Riv Farm" (to gain +1 Hammer when building your Settler), but I'm seeing almost a silly level of detail for some of the wrong things in the log, such as saying how much Commerce the empire makes each turn, which doesn't really help you to work out from which sources that Commerce came.[/Rant]
Basically, it looks as though I'll have to stick to note-taking (either in a text file editor while playing the game in windowed mode or on paper) in order to record the micro details to a good enough level to have some comparable and repeatable results.
Settling Options to get the Cow
Here's an image of some possible settling locations, as I find that it's easier to have a discussion with a picture in front of our faces. The X squares are where we might put our capital if we want to fight for control of Resources, whereas the white lines indicate the Cultural pressure that Churchill will be putting on us from about Turn 35 or thereabouts onward.
If we settle adjacent to a Resource, we should be able to maintain control of that Resource, but settling within our big fat cross won't be enough to wrest control of that Resource until well after we have 500 Culture in our capital.
The circles just represent some possible locations for a City #2; that decision isn't totally important just yet and will depend upon what our Scout reveals along the southern coast; just know that we have plenty of options available to us. For now, let's focus on where we want to put our capital.
Red X = we should be able to control a Magical Fish (Coastal Fish) Resource, which is arguably one of the strongest Resources in the game.
Pros: We get the Fish Resource for our use, as long as we learn Fishing
We get to work a Fur
We have a Coastal capital so that we can build The Great Lighthouse for some great capital Commerce
Later in the game, we'll get to use the G Cow Resource
We have 3 Forests to put into The Great Lighthouse
Cons: There won't be a second Food Resource for our capital to work for a long time
There are no Hills squares to work
Unless we reveal a hidden Resource (Copper, Horse, or Iron), this location will be Hammer poor and not amazing for Food (even though a 6-Food Fish is great, there's only one of them)
Orange X = Kind of like a Beijing, China start on the 18 Civs Earth map, where you get a Fish Resource in your big fat cross but aren't coastal, but you don't care because it's a great Resource even without a Lighthouse and your surrounding land is also green.
Pros: Long-term, we get a capital with 3 Food Resources, which is awesome
We get the Deer within our big fat cross, so the Worker will take less than 15 turns to complete (13 turns)
Cons: We won't be able to actually use the Fish or Cow for a long time, essentially meaning that we really have a 1-Food-Resource capital
We have no Hills squares to work
Yellow X = "neilmeister north," where we also get 3 Food Resources later in the game
We actually get to use 2 Food Resources, as we can keep Cultural control of the Cow
The Great Lighthouse becomes our target, with it being reasonable to build with 7 Hammers per turn from working the Cow, the Deer, a GH Mine, and the City Centre square, plus Hammers from Whipping
Cons: Not a lot--this location should be one of our primary considerations
We'd give up on the Engineering Lightbulb idea, but it is possible that we'd give up on that idea anyway if we find a lot of seafood along the southern coast and/or the western coast (assuming a Europe-like map)
We only have 2 Forest Chops instead of 3 Forest Chops for The Great Lighthouse
We aren't on a River
We don't get a Fur within our big fat cross
Green X = Cow with Fur
Pros: We get the Cow and the Deer for a 2-Food capital
We get a Fur
We get a Hills square
We would leave open the Engineering Lightbulbing approach
We'd be settling adjacent to the Deer for a 12-turn Worker instead of a 13-turn Worker for any location that has the Deer in the big fat cross but isn't settled adjacent to the Deer
We're on a River (seriously, don't put a lot of weight on this point)
Cons: Not a lot of production
Can't build The Great Lighthouse
Blue X = Cow with Hills
Pros: We get the Cow and the Deer for a 2-Food capital
We get 3 Hills squares
We get 3 Forests to Chop
Cons: We can't build The Great Lighthouse
We miss out on a Fur Resource within our capital
We aren't on a River (again, not an important point)
Purple X = Production Heavy
Pros:
We get the Cow and the Deer for a 2-Food capital
It's got amazing production with at least 4 Grassland Hills squares
It can build The Great Lighthouse, The Colossus, and a military quite easily
Cons:
It only has 1 G Riv square (of the visible squares) versus Blue X's 8 G Riv squares, so I think that unless there is something fabulous (such as a Gold Resource in the hidden squares to the east of the Cow), Blue X would beat settling 1 E of the G Cow in terms of Commerce
Red X isn't strong enough, in my mind, with only 1 useable Food Resource for a long period of time, and that Resource also requiring a Work Boat instead of a Worker.
Orange X would be a solid choice if Churchill's Culture were around, but it is not really a valid option due to his Culture stealing both the Fish and the Cow.
Yellow X is probably one of our strongest contenders for a "we want the Cow" scenario, with it being a strong choice for playing a Great Lighthouse game while also having a lot of G Riv Cottages (or G Riv Farms, which can be strong, too) to work.
Green X is there in case we insist on settling on a River and insist on getting the Fur within our capital's big fat cross.
Blue X is stronger than Green X in terms of production. Yes, we'd need a Road instead of a River for our first Trade Route connection, but we're going to have enough Worker turns to get up a 2-turn Road to connect us to the River. I would probably suggest this option as being another top contender, with us picking this option if we would rather go for an Engineering Lightbulb approach over a Great Lighthouse approach.
Purple X would be a strong production capital--4 Grassland Hills squares at a minimum and enough Food to work them. We wouldn't focus on Cottage Commerce and instead would try to grow our capital really large using Monarchy, so that our Great Lighthouse's Trade Routes would get really big, giving us Commerce from Trade Routes instead of Cottages, allowing us to get both Hammers (from our citizens) and Commerce (for free from Trade Routes). I would also place this option as a top contender, with it being a bit unorthodox (moving away from the Rivers) but successful, as the City would keep growing due to having plenty of Grassland Hills squares to work. We could definitely skip Bronze Working on the way to Alphabet as we would simply grow into working more GH Mines and wouldn't need to whip our capital here. Two SGOTMs ago we hurt ourselves by whipping our capital a lot, meaning that a lot of our green riverside cottageable land didn't get worked much anyway, as we were low on production and had to get that production via whipping.
So, to me, if we want the Cow, and I think that it's a good enough Resource to chase after it, as it means getting 2 good Cities in our visible area instead of just 1, we're looking at choosing between Yellow X, Blue X, and Purple X, with only Green X coming into play if people somehow feel that 6 early Health (plus temporary additional Health from Forests) somehow isn't enough.
I wouldn't worry too much about missing the Fur Resources--additional Cities can pick those up.
I did play around with the idea of making the Purple X City our City #2, which is possible to settle before Churchill's Culture gets there (assuming that he doesn't have a Holy City in his capital), but the City had a 6% chance of going into City Revolt every turn for a long time and we didn't actually control the G Cow Resource. No, if we want the G Cow, we need to stake out our claim using both our capital and our Christian Missionary to do so (we can stay in No State Religion and still get the +1 Culture).
What would we do if we went for The Great Lighthouse but not an Engineering Lightbulb? Well, for one, we'd spam Coastal Cities and reap the rewards of Foreign Trade Routes, without really having to worry about having over-expanded, as The Great Lighthouse would counter our increased Maintenance Costs. We'd get a Great Merchant that we could use to Lightbulb Civil Service, and then take the more traditional path via Civil Service -> Education to secure Oxford University relatively early on.
Oxford University can be good with Cottages, but it can also be good with a large-sized capital with strong Trade Routes; both Cottages and Trade Routes give us base Commerce that gets multiplied by Bureaucracy and then multiplied again by our Science multipliers, such as a Library and an Academy.
Yellow X would focus more on whipping while Purple X would focus more on growing into working additional Hills squares.
EDIT: It looks as though we should be able to use the F8 VICTORIES screen to see exactly how much Culture that Churchill has in London as of the start of Turn 1, so we will know whether he has a Holy City or not next turn. For whatever reason, in the test game, Churchill doesn't revolt to Judaism until the end of Turn 1 instead of at the end of Turn 0. The same behaviour seems to be true of all of the AIs in our test game.
