[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[WilliamLP]

Btw, what do you think of farming our horse when we see it? It would have all the benefits of a farm, plus the extra production point, so it would be a pretty good tile! Then maybe we can windmill iron too.

[WilliamLP]

Well this is interesting:




There is dry corn there, plus the end of the jungle. I'm going to sweep around the mountain range. If there is copper there, a site here could be our third city. Not only that but we could actually go for a religion next.




Kurumi and WetBandit have whipped yet again off in the distance.

[Plunder]

Btw, what do you think of farming our horse when we see it? It would have all the benefits of a farm, plus the extra production point, so it would be a pretty good tile! Then maybe we can windmill iron too.

I'm fine with that! We just have to hope that they don't rush us before Oil or Aluminium.


If you find better results with your sims, then we go with that one of course.

You might be obsessed or addicted (or both) to this game, but you're doing an amazing job!

I'll try hard to make a sim at some time that will change your mind

[WilliamLP]

Thanks! I'm learning a lot about this anyway, and winning the post count is more important than the actual game. If you ever want the most up to date sandbox I have, just ask.

Btw, as coincidence would have it, there's actually a team in PB12 with a pasta theme too, though they're not very well reported so far. I'm fine either sticking with it (I think we got there first!) or re-branding again. I'm naming the workers after famous Bills. You can pick a theme for the military units if you want, or name them after plunderers or something.

Turn 46:




The scouting warrior didn't find anything game-changing, unfortunately. He'll go SW one more and then sweep back around since he's needed back home for garrison, police, and fog busting. It's a jungle out there.

The warrior at home is playing zone defense, ready to jump to the forest SW of Lasagne if a barb threatens it, since a worker will go there to chop pretty soon. He'll need to be in the capital in 2 turns when it grows to size 4, to prevent unhappiness.




Retep settled his third city . I think this means we're at the 2N+1 city threshold where barbs can start making pillage missions to the outsides of cultural borders. (3N+1 is where they make missions toward actual cities, if I understand the mechanics correctly.)

[WilliamLP]

Our warrior was attacked by a panther in between turns, but he did fine, just taking 1 hit. I decided to press on one more tile, because it would be our last chance to switch techs without waste, if a copper site were found to the south. No such luck:




There's a river down there. I also wouldn't be very surprised if there were another player fairly close. I very much want to scout the hill to the south, but I probably won't, since to be conservative the warrior needs to heal and head back in time for a warrior to go guard the gold spot.

[WilliamLP]

Checked the hill tile for vision:




Yeah, our start is just very poor and slow, overall.
- No tile with more than 4 food in the capital, except the pigs. And with Arabia, AH first just didn't seem viable without BW and pottery taking an eternity.
- No usable river for a commerce city. The one we have is overgrown by jungle. There are rivers everywhere else.
- No reasonable second city site with a >4 food tile. The corn on the peninsula would waste many worker and settler turns in transit to get there.
- No copper.
- A neighbor who may have no prospects for long term expansion except through us, and who may be safe on all other borders.

The big thing I've learned from this game so far is how much starting techs matter on these settings. I'm used to playing on smaller maps with faster tech rates, where Arabia wouldn't be such a big handicap as it is here.

This is the last I'll whine about this for a while.




We're high in GNP, and low in everything else.

KuroBaII settled their third city.

[Plunder]

Haha, whining is fine, but we're not gonna get any better land from it :P

KuroBaII settle fast, that was expected. I hope the land to their north is good so they won't be forced to expand through us.

Don't get lost with our warrior by the way :P We still need him at home, alive ;-)

[WilliamLP]

I agree, the only reason I have him that far down is that if copper were there it could affect where to settle. He's going to start heading back after a turn of rest now.

In the micro plan, I figured out that non-financial non-river grass cottages kind of suck. I mean, they're behind a lighthouse coast tile for 10 turns, and then even for another 20, and only break even after 40 turns of work. In Lasagne, I have us improving the grass hill next, and I think the population point that would grow onto a grass cottage is better toward military or a worker / settler right now.

I'm kind of antsy right now, because it doesn't really make much sense to plan right now, before horses are revealed. So there won't be that many interesting decisions before turn 52.

I think we can out-tech KuroBaII right now, at least. I'm kind of surprised that Meditation hasn't fallen yet. Surely someone must have Oracle on their minds?

[Plunder]

That myst didn't fall yet is noteworthy yes.
A crazy thought, maybe we are not the special malformed snowflake we think we are, and everybody is screwed over without copper nearby.

Is it possible to check whether KuroBaII has copper connected without revealing that we don't?

[WilliamLP]

That occurred to me too, that Commodore might have thought putting everyone in a copper-free world would be amusing. I haven't been watching the C&D stats so intently. But the average power is maybe rising too quickly for nobody to have axemen? (They're worth 6k each.) I'm not sure. We know Kuro hasn't built one yet, anyway.

I know you can sometimes tell from tile yields changing, when someone has a resource in their culture. Getting the gold city and sailing would allow resource trades, so I think we'd be able to see each others' resources that way.