[SPOILERS] Serdoas and Nobles Thread with a little bit of Gaspar sprinkled in

[NobleHelium]

Looks like I got confused and capitals don't get 2H plants. I think that was in another thread that I skimmed quickly and thought it was taken from RtR.

WBs are cheaper though so that helps tilt things even more.

One other thing, the dye lets you go SW, S or E next turn. NE of the dye pretty much forces you to go S from that afterwards, because everything else is not an open tile.

[Serdoa]

I think scout goes definitely on the dye and we take it from there next turn.

Capitals do get 2h plants. Also palace gives 9 commerce. So without anyone doing anything, you already start with 2f, 2h, 10c. Working the Ivory makes that 3f, 5h, 10c + 1 free beaker as always. Current idea for micro:




I am alternating from the worker to a warrior to grow to 3, finish the worker than with a chop and overflow in a half-price granary. Producing the 2nd worker without alternating would only finish it 1 turn earlier with nothing to put the cop into as Pottery isn't finished at that point. Potentially we could delay the chop by a turn, but that would still mean being behind one pop and needing another turn for the Granary.

Of course, it is debatable if the Granary makes sense that early. But if we want to grow to 4 to whip the settler for 2 it seems a sensible play. I don't like getting the settler only at T32 but with a 2 worker opening I don't see it happening much earlier. Without Anarchy for Slavery and going directly into it after the first worker we could get it T26. Doesn't seem appealing though, as we'll not be at 4 pop, 2 workers and a Granary by T32 most likely. Or have enough warriors for defense.

[Serdoa]

Played the turn. Scout moved to Dye, nothing found. Settled. Found a hut NW as well as a wheat. Should have settled first :P




We have to decide if we want to move towards the hut with the scout or not. Warrior will be finished T9, so it could reach on the hut on T12. But that gives everyone near us a potential 24 moves with their scout. Given 8000 tiles and 23 players that's around 18 tiles on average between civs. So it is a fair possibility that someone would get to it before us. Therefore

a) Moving towards it yes or no?
b) If yes, direct route or with a small circle? Circle could be 1SW,1W onto the forested hill, than 1W, 1NW (fogged). After that straight north with a potential deviation of 1 to the west, so that the last move would be over the wheat onto the hut.

To note is that huts can only give 1st row techs, according to the change log. That would be for us only Wheel, Agriculture, Mysticism. Myst is not really anything of immediate interest, as I don't see researching a religion happening before T40 earliest. Wheel and Agri would help to get Pottery faster though, but both are not researched before T16 earliest. We could gamble and go BW first, hoping for a tech and upping the chance that it is one of the 3 we would like and not Myst, but that already hinges on the small chance of actually getting a tech in the first place. We can interchange BW and Hunting, it doesn't matter research-wise they are both finished before the worker is built.

[NobleHelium]

I forgot huts were on! I claim the "used to Vanilla" exemption.

I say we take a circularish route that lets us explore some but still gets to the hut soon enough such that it's unlikely that it'll be stolen. So uh basically #2.

Here's what I think we should do.

1) Take door number 2 with the scout.
2) Research Hunting to keep our options open as to what to research second.
3) Consider going for a one worker opening, one where we tech Wheel and Agriculture before Bronze Working. If we don't need to chop then I'm not sure we need a second worker, if the first worker can build roads quickly enough. The lack of chops is offset by starting on the settler sooner. So either we grow to 3 ASAP then start a settler, or we do the staggered settler/warrior thing as you've done with the current plan.

Generally speaking a large part of my philosophy for the early game is:

a) Constantly ask yourself what's the minimum number of workers you need.
b) Conserve nonrenewable resources i.e. chops, using them only in high-leverage situations such as important buildings (pretty much only granaries and culture buildings), wonders, or key foodhammer units.

If the second worker does not really contribute to connecting resources quicker or settling cities quicker by building roads (renewable benefits) and only helps contribute to chops, then you're probably better off directly putting those hammers into the settler instead of building the worker to chop the settler.

There's a water tile northwest of the wheat, is that a lake? I see that the river in the southwest corner ends too soon.

[NobleHelium]

Looks like a heavy lake map, actually. I see two lakes in the southeast already.

[Serdoa]

Not much time to sim or think about much, but I made the turn and found another hut. 2W of where the scout is now. Kinda lucky

[NobleHelium]

MY MASTER PLAN IS WORKING!

Actually we should have done the SevenSpirits thing and not selected any techs until t3.

[Serdoa]

REM has not settled on T0 but T1. Gavagai has not settled T0 or T1. If our starts are kinda similar I can see wandering one turn. Two turns does seem odd though.

[Serdoa]

Popped the hut. Result:




Also new land which is kinda "lucky" as well it seems.




Gold is on a desert hill but its still gold. Another happy and the commerce will get FIN-bonus. Floodplains for food or a city that takes wheat and gold, depends on the rest of the land.

Scout moves onto gold hill? Seems best to get some more info about the land without running to far west. Other possibility would be 1W,1NW and take it from there.

[Rowain]

Popped the hut. Result:

Grats