STR-01: The Scorched Lands

[Strauss]

Roster:
1) Strauss -> just played
2) Ralph_Jackson -> UP!
3) Pvblivs -> on deck
4) blastoidstalker
5) Kanga_DU

 

[Strauss]

The dotmap:



I think Red Dot should be our second city. It has no fertile "regular" land, but three food resources make up for that. It is also our only good place for a coastal city for a while.

Yellow Dot will be a very production-heavy city. It's some rough land and some wasted tiles, but I think it will be very useful for churning out troops.

Blue Dot would be the last of our 'core' cities. It will grab valuable horses. I'm not completely sure on what the best exact location would be for this city, but we have some time to think about that as I think Red and Yellow will be founded earlier.

Of course this dotmap could very well change depending on where Copper and Iron resources are located (or if someone makes a better dotmap of course )

The complete lack of luxury resources could pose a problem with war weariness.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Got it,

will post any questions in the morning and play / post in 24 hours

 

[blastoidstalker]

Great start Strauss!!
I think the red site looks good, the 3 resources will make it good site. I think we should go for the horsies in the blue next and move the site up one square to the NW as it will give us the horisies and the rice in the unexpanded square. I would then think about trying to push to get the ivory for a luxery resource, but what to do then will depend on what over civ's have done. Once we get BW we should do some chopping to get the 2-3 settlers and 2-3 more workers out as soon as possible. Slavery should help in this regard as well.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Pre turn Check Plan

1. Let Capital grow to size 3 then switch to settler
2. Checkpoint when bronze working comes in
3. Settler to coastal food spot. Aim to get 3 settlers / workers out a.s.a.p. (chop if necessary but warily)
4. Research BW – HBR for Keshiks

2770 switch over to settler as size 3 reached. Our Brave scout survives a lion just

2770 – 2650
2650 BC. Warrior lining up to light the way for settler survives lion encounter
2560BC. Warrior survives again (another lion!)– keep promotion for next when it is really needed
2500BC – We have stacks of copper. Revolt to slavery and start hooking up the copper.

Apparently we are pathetic but not for long!!

2350BC. First settler emerges and start on a worker to help hook up cities and chop our third settler if required.

2260BC. On way to our site find Hattie is already there. Not in the exact spot we wanted but denying us some of the food resource.

This is one of the occasions which I think warrants an early stop and discussion.
Option 1 Settle where we are. We will get the cows + fish but will lose the culture war for the corn (Hattie has religion) and I think this loss of food specials could make this a very average city and there may well be better spots. Views on settling / moving ?

To help the discussion here is a dotmap. Basically I can see far better sites for this settler than next to Hattie.

I would prefer.

1. Take Hattie out and then later settle in the right spot for these 3 specials.
2. Send Settler up to the groups preferred choice of new site. I would go for Yellow which isn’t spectacular by itself but is a production city for churning out units and bridges us towards Blue and Pink which are cracking sites.(I also have a weakness for the Bananas of Pink cos you see them so rarely. Note Pink needs Iron Working before it will work )

 

[Strauss]

Wow, Hatty is close! I also think we should move the site of our first city. Not only because of the culture war (that's not really a problem when we have removed the Egyptian city ) but as we will be declaring war in 2000 BC we might not have a decent defence up there. How many years are there per turn at this stage? If we still have sufficient time left to bring up a defence we could still settle there.

Yellow Dot would be the best alternative if we do relocate. It will not become a very big city (although the cows will help quite a bit) but can become our most important production base. Pink Dot is too far away from now, I think Mali is quite close to that site so they'll probably get there first. It will be a good spot for us later on though.

It's also very good that we have Copper in our capital's range. This will give us a nice boost in early warfare.

Finally, how many turns did you play up until now Ralph?

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

I played from 2800 through to 2260 which i2 18 turns at the current rate of 30 years per turn.
I would agree with a shift of settler to Yellow dot and start cranking out Axemen as Hattie appears to have volunteered for a taste of

Ralph

 

[Pvblivs]

What about moving new red dot one north and grabbing horses together with the rice. This way we would have a lot of less pain with developing a jungle-city. But have instantly a city with good food capabilities and higher production. Not to forget the better defence on a hill site for our most important ancient resource: Horses.

 

[blastoidstalker]

I agree with PVPLIVS, move the red dot up one or two and settle there. Egypts UU is the war chariot and it is imperative that we do not allow Hatty to get the Horsies. I would put city 3 on the yellow or the blue if it is still avalable. yellow can always be backfilled later. We should also get make sure there is a settler ready to replace the egyptian city when the need arises. Are we agreeing that egypt will be our first target?

 

[blastoidstalker]

If you move the red dot up 2 N and one E we will lose the hill but gain cows.

 

[Pvblivs]

We could do that as well. We do not need the river access neccessarily as we're expansive. But anyway I would consider 1 only N to remain at the river. Else we'll loose a lot of commerce and even the flood plain...

 

[blastoidstalker]

agreed Pvblivs, I forgot about the floodplain. One north of the red dot is where we should place the next city.
Also it would be good if we could figure out whether Hatty has copper and if she does can we eliminate it quickly.

 

[Pvblivs]

With keshiks it will be easy to take anything we want in a reasonable time

 

[Strauss]

Some good thoughts, I agree with moving Red Dot 1 N (as this was also my original plan ). This is also important as Mali could be quite close to that site and if we wait to grab horses until Pink Dot (which would probably be the last city to be founded), Mali could steal it from under our noses.

I'm suggesting to settle in the order Yellow-Red-Blue/Pink. Blue and Pink are both important for happiness resources (I believe sugar gives happiness? Can't check it right now).

I think Egypt would be the best first target as they are so close. If we go after Mali first Egypt might fill up the space we leave when we raze the Malinese cities as they are closer to them than we are.

 

[Pvblivs]

Are you sure about yellow-red? I would say red is the significantly better site with food (rice) and production (horses) as goodies. Yellow will always have slow growth and poorer production. So I would go for red first.

Will play tomorrow most likely...

 

[blastoidstalker]

I agree strongly with Pvblivs on this one, we should set up on red first, then yellow. Also with its distance from other civsd and lack of resources, it is unlikely that the AI will settle on yellow immediately. If they do then they will be surrounded and quickly destroyed . The red dot can be much closer to there core and gives them a military resource including egypt's UU resource

 

[Strauss]

You are both very right. I was at school and we're not really allowed on these kinds of sites/forums so I wrote this in a bit of a hurry.

Red Dot would indeed be the better site (the alternated Red Dot (1 N) that is)

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

I agree re revised red dot, probably should have said that as I played 18 turns seems sensible to handover to Publivs to play 22 to get us back in sequence (particularly as my two would only be shifting a settler northwards.

Have fun lighting the way for the settler, met quite a few lions in my turnset and guess there are barbs out there as well.

Ralph

p.s. I also like stop & discuss for key changes in plan and having done it hope others will as well, it really aids learning (one of the joys of SG's) to have a discussion at key forks in the road.

 

[Strauss]

p.s. I also like stop & discuss for key changes in plan and having done it hope others will as well, it really aids learning (one of the joys of SG's) to have a discussion at key forks in the road.

Indeed, discussion is very important to win, especially with our variant rules and rather high difficulty level. Also remember to lay out your plan if you're fighting a war in your turnset so that your successor can continue on that and doesn't shift everything in a completely different direction.

 

[Pvblivs]

We found Beshbalik on the red dot in 2110 BC (5/22).

In 2080 (6/22) a worker is built. We finish the barracks.

Exploring those jungles in the north our scout is destroyed by a Barbarian warrior in 2020 (8/22).

In 1990 (9/22) we declare war on Hatshepsut.

An archer of Hatshepsut approaches Beshbalik in 1840 (14/22). I do what I can to defend the city and promote our warrior to cover.

We defeat him!

After building the second axe in Karakorum I switch to build a settler again in the end of my turnset. Two axes are approaching Egypt.

We're very far behind in score. We need culture for Beshbalik, else there will be no horses. We need a third city as well. But those are tasks for my successor

The Save