Teaser ...

[Double Stack]

Oh, thanks for the correction. Guess settling on the hill sounds good, only we don't get to mine it...

 

[Capt Buttkick]

In a game vs the AI, I'd do this:

Settle in spot, work FPW, Move Worker to cow.
Irrigate cow. Then road and move to irrigate FPW.
Provided it's a "normal" cow (not on BG), first settler pops turn 14 or 15, depending on what tiles get worked on growth.
Move settler S SW SW and work FP, throw in 2 warriors then build two granaries for a 4-turn settler factory and a 6-turn factory (in despo in the capital, working the cow).

If we've got human civs nearby, they may opt for a military approach, which leaves this opening very vulnerable.

 

[Provolution]

To get an edge, we should settle on the spot to leverage our Science advantage.
As this is pangea, it is critical that we develop a firm industrial base and churn out as many immortals as possible, with a relatively dense city build.

We should irrigate and road the cattle as our first move, I know this from the other intersite demogames we actually lost as CFC. Then, we need to irrigate the foodplains with grain. In this process, we should build a worker in place of a warrior, which will let us quickride our industrial base. We should time the conclusion of our first warrior, with the chopping of the trees SW, this will give us a quick extra warrior.

Our buildqueue should be:
Worker
Warrior
Warrior (Chopped), concluded the turn directly after the first warrior is complete.

 

[vbraun]

If we mine the cow we get a settler out on turn 11. We sould mine the cow instead of irragate the cow because if we Irragate the wheat we will be getting 5 food off that one square. That right there is enough for the 4-turn settler factory, at least I'm pretty sure it will be enough. I will have to test it. If we do Irragate both the cow and wheat we might be able to produce a Worker/Settler factory in the same city, if this is the case that would be the better idea.

Also we should not waste a forest on a warrior but should instead use it for a granary.

 

[greekguy]

i agree with vbraun, we should mine the cow. basically, we have 2 bonus resources: cow on BG and wheat on FP. since the wheat can only be irrigated and not mined, it makes sense to mine the cow, to get that extra shield.

 

[RegentMan]

As this is pangea,...

The map is a continents map.

 

[Provolution]

Even better, a worker out more would make sense, since we are industrious and work faster.

 

[vbraun]

Actually it would make sense to make less workers becasue our workers work twice as fast.

 

[Xerol]

Cows are always on "normal" grassland, I've never encountered one on a BG before. Same goes with all resources that are on Grassland. Cows get +1 shield, however.

 

[Double Stack]

Actually it would make sense to make less workers becasue our workers work twice as fast.

Not at the start, having two workers early will help our economy gain strength much faster than others. This is critical at the first few turns.

 

[Rik Meleet]

Cows are always on "normal" grassland, I've never encountered one on a BG before.

That's because you've never seen one of my maps before

Same goes with all resources that are on Grassland. Cows get +1 shield, however.

Putting resources on grassland is just as easy as putting them on Bonus grassland. The Civ 3 random maps don't do it for some reason, but it is possible. Human mapmakers do it sometimes.
See the parallel with fish on marshes? That is something the Civ 3 random maps never do, but fish can be placed on marsh. It must be because of internal codes. A human mapmaker doesn't have those internal code-barriers. Don't rely on your experience with random maps to know what is possible in a human made map.

 

[Strider]

Don't rely on your experience with random maps to know what is possible in a human made map.

That goes without about everything in this game. Remember, were playing humans... not an AI. Humans are much smarter, and much more capable. Most strategies that work inside of a normal Epic game would just fail horribly here.

We've got to be 'out of the box' if we want to win this. Oh sure, a stack of immortals is awesome, but you can send in 8 stacks of warriors (in the same amount of time) and just overwhelm them. Pillage everything in sight, capture workers.. while our main forces (and most upgraded.. like immortals) go after the cities themselves.

Remember, humans can be angered, humbled, overwhelmed, and surprised. Let's use that to our advantage.

To put it simply, none of your strategies, tatics, or knowledge from a regular game means **** here.

 

[vbraun]

We should really get a spearman over to enemy territroy to pillage them, scare their workers and force them to make archers and waste lots of warriors. Infact this was a common tactic back in my Multiplayer Days.

It would be even better if our spearman had 2 movement. Impi's were known as Settler killers also.

We also need to set up away to see at least 3 squares out side our borders, as strange as this sounds I reccomend Outpost's on mountains as we will be able to see not just 2 squares but 3 squares around it! Also this would be an oddball tactic that no one on anyother teams would think about, meaning they probably won't look for the outposts and will not see them.

 

[mvp]

We also need to set up away to see at least 3 squares out side our borders, as strange as this sounds I reccomend Outpost's on mountains as we will be able to see not just 2 squares but 3 squares around it! Also this would be an oddball tactic that no one on anyother teams would think about, meaning they probably won't look for the outposts and will not see them.

Hm... that sounds good. I am surprised, but like the idea. Personaly I never was used outposts - but as you mention probably other teams will not use that tactic .

 

[RegentMan]

Just so you know: Wines do not give a food bonus. They give +2 gold instead.

 

[Provolution]

Remember, that extra early worker brings new settlers quicker to the new city site, as well as heavily increasing production in the cityscape. I have this input from the very best of sources. You may of course ignore me, but then I will hound you guys when we fall behind the other guys. That extra early worker enables us to chop a forest quick for an extra warrior, without losing time and food, as well as faster scaling up tile production as well as imperial logistics. Remember, Immortals are heavily road dependent units.

The choice of Persians, require us to provide Immortals with the needed infrastructure to be transited effectively to the battlespace, as well as quicker reconstruction of terrain for increased production. I would claim my proposal is the only proposal with a sort of holistic strategy, long term thinking and leveraging joint synergies.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

In starts with huge food production, early workers are imhso even more important, otherwise you'll be working unimproved tiles for a long time.

Maybe I should have been clearer in my post: I agree with Strider that the usual tactics that would trash the AI from a start like this, may not work against humans. We still need a settler factory, though.

After thinking about this start I'd suggest this: settle in place, move worker to FPW and irrigate then road, then move to cow and mine/road.
First build is settler which goes EE and builds warrior, warrior, barracks.

How does that sound?

 

[Provolution]

I disagree, I agree with the initial tile improvements, but my pick would be worker, warrior, warrior (forest chop), settler (forest chop 2), which will enable the fastest expansion possible. We got enough shields from other places, so we can really chop the forests to gain an edge.

 

[vbraun]

I recommend we save a forest for the granary when we get pottery.

Any comments on the use of outposts?

 

[Provolution]

I learnt about the early worker strategy from the very programmer at Firaxis, Trip.
Mathemathically, that gives the biggest early gain.