SHAEF

[Old Harry]

I logged in to think about dot mapping and was confronted with a decision! Arrrrgh. Don't worry I said no.


A little fog gazing makes me think there are a few tiles to the south, but probably not much worth settling.


It also makes me think the body of water by HAK is narrow and galley-able.


Based on the scouts who got to us first I think the world is laid out like this:


In this case I think getting sailing early, aggressively settling the coast and sitting on the seafood of opponents who settle on your ocean might be a strong strategy. WK and shoot aren't going to settle the jungle too quickly so I think our early threat comes from LAM, via the oceans.


This affects the dot-mapping, as I'd emphasise Hydra settling westwards and HAK hugging the coast to his east.


For HAK: City 2 is still the best second city, but I'm tempted to swap 3 & 4 over, then build 5, check if 6 gets any resources at all, but even if it doesn't it's probably worth building (maybe 1N) for the control it gives over the water.

For Hydra: City 3 can get you a presence on that water quickly, city 4 can share and grow more cottages for Verriers while 5 is an amazing Maui city for a fin civ (once it gets big enough). Then I can't choose between 6 & 7 next.

Can we do all of these before Iron working? Once that is on the horizon we need to start encroaching on the north.

What do you guys think? I know it makes it harder for Hydra to supply settlers for HAK (BTW should this one be for HAK's third city?) If you want to muck about with the image above its a paint.net file:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/8kzbc22race7v6o/dotmap.pdn

[Old Harry]

By the way I think the workers should build a road linking Verriers and Cour, then start on the river cottage that the cities can share and pasture the horse.

Also writing->maths is good, if you can hold off chopping until you get the tech? Then Sailing, masonry as Maui might be quite important here?

[TheHumanHydra]

Thanks for those detailed thoughts, Old Harry. Glad to see you were able to log in.

I think I'm going to hold off on playing the turn for a bit, as it only just rolled and I'd like to get some more discussion in, particularly around worker moves.

With regard to the dotmap for my civ, I'm inclined to think number seven should actually be first due to the map presence it provides. I also think if we're going to have any chance of getting six or the unnumbered one below it, we'd need to take them much earlier. Should three be 1NW to grab the gems? I really like five as the Moai city like you said. I'd like to see that south-central copper and corn included in the dotmap somehow.

That's all the thoughts I have time for right now. I'll play the turn later today. For now, a quick 46 report, then schoolwork!

[Old Harry]

With regard to the dotmap for my civ, I'm inclined to think number seven should actually be first due to the map presence it provides. I also think if we're going to have any chance of getting six or the unnumbered one below it, we'd need to take them much earlier. Should three be 1NW to grab the gems? I really like five as the Moai city like you said. I'd like to see that south-central copper and corn included in the dotmap somehow.

That's all the thoughts I have time for right now. I'll play the turn later today. For now, a quick 46 report, then schoolwork!

I'm not sure what "map presence" means? Centrality?

I don't think you need to worry about getting 5 & 6 - if England are just over the water from you they'll have a start like HAK's. I don't see them putting hammers into naval units or trecking all the way around the southern (tundra) side of the water before they are out to 5 or 6 cities themselves. The one to the west of 7 could be difficult, depending on where Enland places their equivalent of HAK 6, but it can move 1SE.

Moving 3 1NE is possible, but will start slower and can't get the gems until Iron Working, at which point I think you should be settling for the rice...

Does anyone know how border culture works between same-team civs? Can you swap shared tiles or do you need cultural control? I've put the southern copper-corn city in as Hydra but it'll probably be better to make it a HAK city:

[BaII]

Old Harry, the city u wanted us to settle 7th. I would pref to settle there much earlier, as it provides a strong border plant against our western opponents, as well as being only 5 tiles away from our captial, allowing provides for easy reinforcements.
This would also allow us to fill in some back line cities later on. (settling that spot as our 4th or 5th cities seems like the best course of action)

[TheHumanHydra]

Played the turn, in somewhat of a daze due to fatigue. This caused me to totally forget to take any demographics or top cities screenshots - can you make sure to do that, HAK (not that you ever don't)?

I moved that one warrior into HAK's territory and gifted it, as planned. The one that's dithering about in the ice in the south, can I recall him or would you like him to keep exploring that area?

I selected Writing as the next tech as we agreed; should research quickly. Cottage the one river tile was the one consistent thing I heard with regard to the workers, so that's what I did:



Might be able to kill a Roman scout next turn if it moves to the tile I think it will. If I can, should I?

[BaII]

Kill it, just make sure they are not trying to bait u in. As that warrior will be useful for HR purposes.

[HitAnyKey]

Seven's scout is a long way from their home, so there wouldn't be any way for baiting. And I was going to suggest killing it as well if it moves to that spot.
I took a Demo's screenshot, but nothing else. I'm also in a bit of a haze after my 3hr drive home tonight from NJ, and the need to crawl into bed. I think the Demo should be enough for Old Harry this turn.

My forest chop will finish the turn before my worker finishes, so that'll give it a good amount overflow which I'm going to put into building a settler for that #2 city spot to the north. With the two workers I'll start roading towards that spot, and also cottage that southern floodplain so that as soon as the city gets founded, it'll be able to work that tile almost immediately.
Thanks for the gifted warrior. His usefulness will be that I'm sending him to Mt Loon, and when he gets there my Dog Soldier will head up to my new city spot.

I do have to say, that is a very awesome dotmap, OH. Thanks for that! :D

One thing to note is that in 9 turns we will have trade routes between our civs. Courclette will pop it's borders in 7 turns, and Mt Loon will pop in 9 turns. That will make the borders touch along the river and I believe that will give trade routes.

I like the idea of settling my #4 before #3, so those numbers in your dot-map can be switched. That fur city will be a nice one to have earlier on. And as soon as my borders pop, we'll be able to have someone's worker head over to mine and road to that Copper so that THH can build Axes when he wants to.

[HitAnyKey]

I've now gotten visibility on the capital of the other half of RMOG:


His warrior has been following me, and I expect it to move 1W or 1NW next turn, so I'll be having to go W-SW to go exploring that direction next. I'm assuming that's where Seven's scout came from.

My chop just went into building my worker (which will come out next turn). The worker that did the chop next turn will make a Road and the new worker will also make a road. That way the settler can get up to the spot faster when it comes out, and the cities will be that much closer to being connected for trade routes.

[Old Harry]

Hey HAK, won't Courcelette pop it's borders sooner? I think you only need 5 culture on quick.

Nice idea with the roads, will you be able to road the plains forest 1n of your current worker before the settler moves? That way he can settle in two turns and you can quickly chop a granary.

After the settler how about growing past your happy cap and whipping another couple of workers (one for THH)?

BaII - my guess is that city 5 gives us a better border against the western opponents, as I think there might be a similar body of water to the one by HAK acting as a natural barrier there. We need to scout it to find out though, and we don't need to decide for a while so that shouldn't be a problem. Hydra - do you have a warrior somewhere near that?