( Spoilers! ) 52 ways to cook shrimp.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

I'm very excited for your naming theme

[superdeath]

I'm very excited for your naming theme

Same!

[GeneralKilCavalry]

updated sim
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hgzkdph4yqxdj...dSave?dl=0

[chumchu]

If we want to do a fast opening we should stay on a plains hill at all costs. It means a 3 turns faster worker and extra production for our settlers with imperialistic. 1 West is much worse in the short term since we lose 4 turns on our first worker and even more to our first settler. Just not worth it for any attempt at a fast start.

Also, it is arguably worse in the long run since it does not have fresh water and can not build a levee. With all the flood plains it will run into health issues rather quickly which means that we will waste turns on buildings or grow more slowly than we want.

If we want more floodplains then we should go two west which is plains hill, riverside. We lose our best food resource of the ones we know but we only lose 1 turn on the worker at least. It will have more food than our current location long term. However, I would still argue against it as we lose a turn on the worker and a few more to the first settler since flood plains are slow and we will not have any 5 food tile to jump start our growth.

The capital is really good early on with its many forests and high production which is perfect for imperialistic China. We can find the optimal site for a commerce city or 2 in that flood plain later when we have more information. Preserving it for cities 2 and 3 works great.

[superdeath]

Chumchu what are your thoughts on the other players?

[chumchu]

1. SD Catherine / China
We have the best set-up for taking a disproportionate share of the map. We will need that against all the cvs with better lategame economy than us.

2. Charriu- Mao / Celts
My take on Charriu is that his success will depend a lot on random factors. He has great defense but little real offense, he is bad at taking land but good at holding it. If he has the right neighbor or terrain he can do well, otherwise not so much. I would not want to attack into him once he gets his set-up into place and that deterrence has a value. 

Gallic swords are pretty meh. They are an offensive unit which in 9 out of 10 situations wants CR 1 over guerilla 2. A full gallic stack can be used with good affect against an AI in the right terrain but against a player it can be countered easily with a few axes on the hill he wants to move through.

His commerce bonuses comes solely from trade which means that it can be countered if he is in a good position. His hammer bonus is the cheap granary that comes after cities are planted which means that we should try to beat him to any contested sites between us. This is with unnerfed slavery so he has snowball potential in turns 50-100.

3. pindicator- Charlemagne / Carthage
Some of the above applies here as well but this is a better combo than Charriu as he has IMP to get an edge in the landgrab before locking it down with PRO. I suspect Charriu might have wanted Carthage for his civ with Mao as cheap cothons plus PRO looks like a great combo. A big ball of numids is scary if you are behind in tech. It is still weak at taking cities, against other horse archers and garbage against elephants. Unless ha can surprise an oppoennt I am more scared about highly promoted knight from

4. Mjmd- Victoria / India
Will be latest to the first worker but just continue climbing from there. A beast lategame if allow to expand and cottage in peace. Good war target in the classical era before the full combo kicks in. 10/10 would attack.

5. AutomatedTeller- Boudica / Maya
Tied as most likely player to attempt a choke on an opponent with Mr. Cairo. Agree that we do not want to neghbour him. If we do we will have to play more defensively than we want. Good that our starting techs allow for a very early Bronze working as we will want that in our second city by the latest. Critical early game tech for him is construction which gives both happy and catapults.

6. Jowy- Hannibal / Khmer
Know as little as you about him. I see it as a combo centred around the ballista elephant. Financial gets you to the tech fast and charismatic allows more cottages, coast and gives them more promotions. With str. 8 Ballista Elephants are only countered by spear. A mainly spear army is easy for him to counter though. He has no early a hammers except for cheap monuments so I expect him to be looking for a conquest in the classical era.

7. Mr.Cairo- Tokugawa / Zulu
I tend to see him as very competent micro oriented player that can get an uncontrollable tech lead if not stopped. Maybe he is trying to compensate for the target on his back or trying to play differently than usual.

8. GiraRober- Cyrus / Japan
Not sold on the idea of a Samurai rush. With 2 extra xp they are definitely dangerous city attackes. But they require as much tech as knights and more than crossbows both of which can kill them in the field. He also has no economic bonus to get there

I would group the players into aggressors and defenders. Hopefully we will neighbour as many builders as possible to give us options for conquest and less danger of an early attack. Ideal neighbours are MJMD, Charriu and Girarober. Worst neighbours are AT, Cairo and pindicator.

Early aggressors:
AT
Mr. Cairo
GiraRober?

Peaceful builders:
Pindicator
MJMD
Charriu

Unsure:
SD
Jowy

[superdeath]

Im seeing coast in the fog to our north/west so the scout will be circling to the west coast and then back towards the mountains searching for food.

[chumchu]

Sounds good

[superdeath]

Played a double turn due to being the only one that wakes up and goes straight to work? Giving me a roughly 16hr window where a turn could be waiting on me.. Hmm


I think going along the hills is the smart move here since we only have 1 god damn movement...

[chumchu]

It looks like good land thus far if compared to a random map. We have lots of forest, a long river and decent food. The issue I see as that we do not have an early happy resource. If we can not find one or two then I would say that monarchy is absolutely crucial for us. We want to work the river valley, slave out units and buildings etc.

I would risk a move SE so that we can get onto the forested plains hill next turn to see more of the river valley. Was that what you had in mind?