[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[ipecac]

I thought it's just that he's good at both building and war more than anything else.

He is good at that. But RtR is also a significant revamp of BtS, and having personally designed it gives Krill a serious edge in understanding of how the game should be played.

Also, you might want to post in the tech thread to ask about Mardoc's progress with the map. No posts in lurker thread is not a terribly encouraging sign that the game will begin soon.

[Dark Savant]

Well, it looks like the game might actually begin this week!

I don't really have anything to add, but I didn't want to give the the impression that I'd stopped paying attention.

[ipecac]

Can't say I've been paying much attention

Let's hope the game gets up soon before it dies.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, the game just went up, just as I'm starting to get myself involved in a SMAC game as well.  

I'll look into getting this game underway once I eat dinner, so later this evening.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 0 (4000 BC)

Okay, I just spent a fair bit of time getting used to the very concept of personally playing Civ 4 Not-Singleplayer.  The last time I played any 4X game multiplayer was a MP SMAX game that was, oh, about 15 years ago.  

I moved the scout to one of the hills to the south.  Nothing to remotely justify moving the settler (not a surprise given what we know about the map), so I settled in place:



That's ... not exactly a promising direction for a second city at the moment, but I'll continue to poke that way.  It'll be another 28 turns before I produce my first settler, anyway.

The plan is to research Bronze Working out the gate.  I'll finish the worker on t10, and then the pasture on the cow on t13.  I'd then move the worker to the northern forests for when Bronze Working comes in on turn 16, then start chopping into a second worker.  In the meantime, I'd work on warriors while growing to size 2.

This is a screenshot of my capital from its original game:



(I'm not flying above the castle for a better shot here, oh well.)

That's from Might and Magic 6.  (I haven't played 9 or 10, incidentally.  I should get around to playing 10 one of these days ... too many games, not enough time to play them all.)  I think 6 is the strongest game in the series; of the ones I've played, my personal ranking is 6 > 7 > 1 > 8 > 4 > 5 > 3 > 2.

[ipecac]

Having never played Might and Magic, I'm afraid I've nothing much to contribute on that front.

Are you planning to do lots of C&D in this game?

[Dark Savant]

Having never played Might and Magic, I'm afraid I've nothing much to contribute on that front.

I wasn't expecting you to, just throwing some flavor around.    And I'm not using the suggested city names for what I imagine is the usual reason: if you use the standard city names, rivals can draw inferences about when cities are founded.

Are you planning to do lots of C&D in this game?

Yes, at least at the beginning.  But is there anything I can really do now, before I meet anyone, and in the first ~5 turns?  I can't see anyone else's graphs, and while I can see scores I can't see score components other than mine.  It'd take 6t for someone to research Fishing or Archery (no one has the combination of leader and civ to get one of those in 5t), and 5t for anyone to build a warrior.

Krill decided to end his turn without founding his capital; I wonder what he saw that I didn't?  It's possible there's a better site in a direction other than where I moved, but why would he do that?

I can think of a metagaming reason to do that: you could simply move the settler in a random direction, and gamble that you'll stumble on something better in a few turns, which isn't awful odds in a game with this many players.  But I have trouble seeing that as a worthwhile risk if you're one of the better players in the game -- it would make more sense for me than for him.  It also makes much less sense in Civ 4 than in any of Civ 1/2/3/5 or SMAC.

... I suppose I should keep screenshots of the Demographics screen for every turn, just grabbed one.  It doesn't currently show anything I don't already know.

[ipecac]

But is there anything I can really do now, before I meet anyone, and in the first ~5 turns

Not much.

Krill decided to end his turn without founding his capital; I wonder what he saw that I didn't?  It's possible there's a better site in a direction other than where I moved, but why would he do that?

[Dark Savant]

I logged in again just to check fresh water (while we're waiting for the post-reload ... whatever).  The two water tiles peeking out of the fog to the west are fresh.  The water tiles to the northeast are salty.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 1 (3960 BC)

Oh hey, turn 0 now done for real.

I moved the scout to the newly visible forested hill.  It looks like Mardoc wants us to research Iron Working early:



That newly visible plains hill is a potential good site for a second city: it's more distant from the capital than I'd like, but it's got wet corn.  I'm planning to have the scout take a closer look.

There are in fact a couple ways to get a tech in 5 turns, so I'll start checking then.  (Doubtful, but you never know.)

The water tiles to the scout's southeast are salty.

Planning: once the worker is done, I have to work the oasis for a few turns in order to get Bronze Working by t16 instead of t17 (the current schedule).  If I don't, the worker will be idle for 1 turn.  Also, I'm not going have the scout visit the coast to the east of Castle Ironfist, since I can have a warrior I produce before the settler take a quick look.

Any guess what base map script we're looking at?  That's six freshwater lakes already.