I kind of like the idea of building a 2nd scout. I see no reason, with what I see, to prioritize our little peninsula north - that can wait for quite a while. Right now, I think our 2nd city will end up being west or south - I think there will be a good site down that way.
South, in particular, looks like it might be a good place to build mids if we want.
I think Mr Cairo is going to be slow expanding, at least compared to us, and his site to the west is not appealing, unless that's where his copper is. I figure we have 4 city sites, at least, in easy reach, though at least one of them may not be very good.
Oh man, having an island, even a really crappy one, is very, very good. I'd expect that Commodore balanced them, but definitely not guaranteed by a random map. Ideally we'll have some international trade routes, but I doubt that we will have enough to fill up our as-many-cities-as-possible slots, and even +1c per city goes a long way in avoiding a strike or turning terrible teching into mediocre teching. Not a high priority, but worth a high single-digit/low double-digit settlement.
I agree with your settler priority assessment expect that we do need to seal that peninsula off from Mr. Cairo. I can easily see our third city grabbing the cows, and not being too unhappy about it, even if there is a slightly better raw BFC option. Then, focusing hard on settling elsewhere before backfilling our direct N peninsula and the one between us and Mr. Cairo.
P.S. We should think of a clear and concise way to distinguish the two peninsulas. Maybe "Tom" and "Ray"? Or just A and B.
P.P.S. i appreciate you posting pictures every turn so far. Makes it a lot easier for me to follow along when I have not found time to crack open my laptop in two weeks.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Guess we can go get vision on his cap and then bounce around to see how likely he is to try and grab our ivory. (I think the on the peninsula is ours, the one in the jungle is likely disputed and thus should be ours, too
the silver line is the column of tiles that is 5 away (horizontally) from each of ours and Mr Cairo's capitols.
the circles are where we or mr cairo can plant to cut off land access to the peninsula for the other guy, at least eventually. His plant will cut us off in 10 turns, ours will take 20 or so (depending on how long the terrace takes), though maybe a lot faster if we get a religion in there. if he plants first in either location, we can go rectangle and get the cow and ivory and crab. the very bad thing is if he plants on the silver line or on our circle.
I don't know that he will, but he can create 2 promo archers, so at least eventually will be able to defend such a plant with cheap units.
I think we have to assume he'll one of those brown plants a priority at some point. The advantage, for us, is that they have no food.
Hmm. Well, one benefit is that if we get our circle, even if slips a settler through before we pop borders, he can't settle south of the row with the ivory. That's incredibly exposed AND low quality. Can't imagine that he'd prioritize it if we grab the red dot.
But the red dot is such a disappointing second city.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
yeah, I still think #2 goes west or south, unless the cow is the best food tile we have. Honestly, I think we can handle his plant at brown circle, either by sneaking a settler by or by using the galley we will want for the island city, anyway. I think seeing what his land looks south and east will be good, too.
Mr Cairo went wheel
Ruff went agri
krill went mining
or
mr cairo went mining
Ruff went hunting
krill went mining
dunno which.
Also -turn 9, Mr Cairo got another tech, no one else did. Probably Mr Cairo went WB first and used the extra commerce from his clam to clip a turn off of mining. I'll see when I log if the soldiers jumped up again.
no, I'm not going to track this stuff obsesively It's fun for a little while, but not for too long.
Huh. Looks like NA started with the wrong techs. It's not a big deal or anything, but they start with fishing/agri in base BTS and the 4.1/1/6 changelog says they start with Fishing/Agri, but I started a test game and they start with agri/hunting
I should have realized something was off, cause the lowest in turn 1 was 2K.
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![[Image: pb47t9land.JPG]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/4f71bomkzau611a/pb47t9land.JPG)
![[Image: pb47t10land.JPG]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/eps4r8x5gweoea0/pb47t10land.JPG)