[Spoilers] This Perfect Place

[Commodore]

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this game is too casual to actually get around to explaining what "casual" entails. You seem to have a pretty decent grasp of the personalities involved...I'd just assume that someone who doesn't usually take things personally won't take things personally, and vice versa.

[Mr. Cairo]

Well, I think I am going to move into his territory and get a look at his cap. I won't stick around though, camping a resource tile is somewhat a dick move, and will cause bad blood between us early, which is somewhat counter-productive to my eventual goal of conquering Gawdzak later

[Mr. Cairo]

So, how does the game determine where to send one's units that are in enemy territory when peace is signed? I moved onto that hill, as planned, and thought that if I offer peace, and Gawdzak accepts it, I get a free move, so to speak. But, depending on where the scout gets moved to, it might be vulnerable to attack by a panther.

[pindicator]

I'm not sure about the formula for that at all, but I know many people have been bitten by guessing wrong. I know the game will try to move the unit the least amount of tiles possible, and I think there is some biasing for 1) staying on the same landmass and 2) heading towards the capital, but I don't know what the formulas are for each.

[Mr. Cairo]

Gawdzak accepted the peace offer, and my scout was bumped 1N, as I had hoped it would be. If it had been moved 1NE instead, it would have been vulnerable to a panther that I saw as I was moving the scout onto the hill.

[Mr. Cairo]

So my scout has revealed some very interesting tiles that may change my dotmap.


The small "x" is where Raven will(may?) be going next. But what is really interesting is those sheep, which opens the possibility of planting my third city on the hill the scout is currently occupying (marked "City 3?").
It would be a much more aggressive plant than my original spot, claiming the named cows. In all likelihood, I wont be able to do that due to Gawdzak's own city plants, since it's likely that he'll get to three cities before I do, but it's still an option (City #3 by T49 isn't quick, but I'll have 4 workers, 6 total pop, good infrastructure, and a barracks in city 2, so I don't think it's all that bad. Hopefully I'll be quick to cities 4 through 6).

Fog gazing reveals water 1E of BRick Mountain, so it may turn out that I don't have a lot of room to expand over there anyway, and aggressively settling towards Gawdzak is my best/only option. If I do go there I'd have to clear those forests fast, probably chopping them into axes and spears immediately (assuming I get copper with my second city, or in my caps BFC). Thinking about it, I may want to send my scout NE instead of SE to reveal where that coast goes. Then double back to where I am currently planning on sending him. That way it stays around the area I'm most likely to see Gawdzak's scout if he sends it in my direction, which would be useful information. If I don't see his scout in the next few turns, I think I can be reasonably confidant he hasn't scouted too much to the north, and I may well go for the aggressive plant.

Side-note, that clam lake is really annoying for dot-mapping. It needs a fort-canal to get a workboat to it, and even then the city that works it wouldn't be able to have a lighthouse. It looks like a food-source, but in reality that entire area around that lake is kinda food-light. Really, the only viable city spot for that is one that shares the deer from Gawdzak's cap, or also has the pigs to the west. There's no spot I can plant that can really take advantage of them.

In other news, my first Warrior is about to arrive, and he'll go north to see how far the land extends in that direction, before turning around to cover my settler. I hope that there's nothing to my north, since it would make everything a lot simpler, but I don't know how likely that it. Looking at the map now, I'm seeing a lot of snaky land and water, so there may well be a narrow isthmus up there connecting to a bunch more land. I'm not even going to try and guess the map-script, I do not have the knowledge for that.

[Mr. Cairo]

OK, long post coming up, so I'll split it into two parts. This, the first part, will be my new micro plan:




Nothing changes until City 2 is planted. Instead of a barracks it builds a worker, which will be finished by the chop 2S of the cap. The new worker and the one that chopped it out go and camp the deer, while the worker that pastured the pigs will mine the hill 1E of it.


Anywhere is will build warriors until it's size three working the pigs and 2 mines and will then build a worker. Wild Child is building a settler while working the sheep, deer, and mine, to be accompanied by 2 chops.


Upon finishing the settler, the cap will immediately start on another one, with another two chops incoming. After the worker at size three Anywhere Is will pump out military for a while, growing to the happy cap onto mines.


At this point I have to make a choice. Go for the original city spot, or the new, aggressive, spot. Either way they'll be planted on turn 45 with the third settler out of the cap.

Once more, there's the caveat that where copper ends up will likely change this somewhat, but this is the current plan, up to T45. Over the previous plan, I have 1 less worker, 1 less barracks, but a lot more military, my third city planted faster, and my fourth city much faster.


My next post will be a fairly in-depth strategic analysis about planting that aggressive city spot.

[Mr. Cairo]

OK, so, should I go for that aggressive city spot by the sheep? Well, first, let's acknowledge just how aggressive it really is.


It isn't that far away from my original spot for that city, so at first glance it might not seem all that different, but it surely is. The original spot claims land that is quite clearly up for grabs between the two of us. The line formed by the sheep, elephants, marble, and gold is almost equidistant between mine and Gawdzak's caps (6 tiles from mine, 7 from his), so forms a natural borderland, one which we will contest. My first spot for city 3 claims that borderland. It would be telling Gawdzak that I'm not planning on just letting the border land where it may, that I will claim land and resources pro-actively. It's passive aggressive.
The new spot however, would take territory that he would, rightfully, assume belongs to him, especially those cows. It's almost(is?) pink-dot level of aggressive city planting, which is why I would plan to have a lot of military in the vicinity.

So, assuming I can do it, should I? What would it accomplish in the long term, and how would it effect my future relationship with Gawdzak? Would he immediately try and take it from me? Would he settle aggressively towards me in response, thinking I'vve over-extended myself taking that spot? I don't know how much land he has to his south and west, and therefore I don't know how much this move would pressure him, in terms of his available land.

Long-term, if I can hold that city and my fourth city, which will likely go on the tile 1N of the marble (shifting the coastal city to the hill SW of the stone) and basically re-draw the long-term border between our civs, I'd be confidant about my chances in this game. So in that sense, it seems worth it.

The other question is more political in nature. How would Gawdzak react, both to the plant itself, and what it represents about me as a player? From what I've gathered, he's not the type to react to something like this with a blind, slavering, rage, but I'm fairly confident that if he see's a chance to punish me for it, he'll take it. He'll view me as an enemy from now on, regardless of whether we do go to war over it, and that will effect his every decision from that point. That in itself is not a bad thing, since it will make him somewhat more predictable than if his attitude towards me remained unknown.

Gawdzak being creative also encourages me to be aggressive in my settling, since his borders will naturally expand faster than mine. Also, being the only industrious civ, he's likely to put a lot of effort into wonders, which I might be able to take advantage of. In fact, if he's making a play for the oracle, he might not be settling as fast as he might otherwise, and I should take advantage of that. If he founds a religion, that would be a huge tell that he's going for the Oracle, and a green light for me.

I think I have convinced myself. Since I don't have to make a decision until 1 turn before I settle, I can wait and see what Gawdzak actually does. If I see the opportunity I will take it, but I won't be too disappointed if he does something that takes that opportunity away.

[Mr. Cairo]

So here is my cock-up in all its glory




Somehow I managed not to notice that the scout ended its moves in the oasis and that there's a panther right there. If I had to guess, when I moved the scout onto the oasis, the game immediately moved my camera up to my warrior (which had shown that there is in fact more land to my north) and I forgot to go back down and see what my scout saw before ending turn. Well, hopefully this will be a lesson for me to take my time when playing my turns. And remember what oasis tiles do. Maybe if I take screenshots every turn from now on, even if I don't use them, it will force me to pay more attention.

Anyway, now that I see this it's obvious I can't support a reload for Jowy. Unless I was forced to do the exact same moves? I don't know, much easier just to say no to the reload and extend the turn timer so it doesn't happen again.

[Khan]

I think you are mistaken about the clam lake. I believe (please test) that you can always build a work boat if a city has an adjacent body of water that contains a resource. So, that may open up more options. It cannot get a lighthouse, true, but it gains an extra food from being a lake anyway so that's not too bad.

I have no idea about anything in this game, so can be a semi-dedicated lurker if you would like. I'll only read your thread, but I can't promise to be active! My own thread is largely neglected as it is.