[Spoilers] What, no fireballs?! Team FFH: we're not in Erebus anymore

[Ichabod]

On a different note: Good luck, guys! I'll be your friendly dedlurker, if you don't mind . Even though it's tempting to jump ship and help with the Gaspawards.

Welcome, Mardoc!

Sheesh. 36 posts already and no fancy pants plan to beeline Gibbon to terraform all your land?

Duh! Look at the first posts, we are playing Auric Ulvin, he's agnostic...

:neenernee

<Insert obligatory FFH joke here>

I think I'll watch this here

I've always wanted to watch a pitboss game from the start and this games wins by having only public diplomacy not even mentioning the awesomeness of a FFH team.

Welcome for you too, Ravus.


On a more game related comment, I'll be able to log in an post a pretty picture after the scout/warrior moves in 3 hours or so.

Then we'll have something like 9 to 12 hours to discuss what to do!

[DaveV]

Hmm, I'm not wild with either idea [for city naming scheme]. Let's keep thinking.

More proposals:

1. Unique features (Remnants of Patria, Dragon Bones, Seven Pines, etc.)
2. Gods (The One, Dagda, Agares, etc.)
3. Heros (Bambur, Corlindale, Hemah, etc.)

[darrelljs]

I thought it would be handy to give a recap of the time worker actions need on BtS Normal Speed.

Especially if you plan to micro out the start .

Darrell

[Mardoc]

4. Developers of FFH

[Ilios]

Especially if you plan to micro out the start .

Darrell

Micro?

I thought we had agreed to roll a ten-sided die for every worker move?

[Ichabod]

Especially if you plan to micro out the start .

Darrell

I already made a deal with novice. He'll micro the start for us and I'll never vote to lynch him for the next 5 werewolf games.

Just don't tell the other players...

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 0 (What?! The turns don't start at turn 1 in BTS?) - 4000 BC - Part 1:[/SIZE]

So, let's start this game!

After cautiously logging in in the pitboss host (I was afraid something might blow up in another person computer due to some extra space I entered - I'm not a computer kind of guy) and even more cautiously choosing my Civ (can't miss or you are going to ruin the game!), I was greeted by this fellow:

What?! Who are you and what did you do to Auric?

Anyways, the sight of gold eased my mind of this doubts. It seems we can improve the gold from the start and we don't need 50 turns like in FfH (in quick speed, no less) - definetely a plus.

So our warrior went first:

Ivory. Not bad, but could be better. Another food resource would have been golden. Alas, that was not to be and I can't complain of a 1/3/3 tile that is one of the few early happiness resources in BTS. With charismatic + gold + ivory we are looking at a very nice advantage in happiness against the other teams. Elephants are only allowed to the Khmer, though, right?

And the the scout:

Interesting things to note:

*No food besides the corn
*Possibility of another strategic resource (might be uranian, coal or alluminiun, for example).
*Coast in the north and east. Settling 1N or 1E makes a coastal city in that direction tricky.
*Lots of plain in the west, albeit a lot of riverside tiles.

Settling possibilities: Remember, this is normal speed, so a turn moving isn't that bad

1E - gets corn, gold and a coastal tile - loses ivory and 1 of the possible strategic resources.

I'm starting to think getting the gold in the capital BFC is such an incredible advantage that we can't let it get past us. It's also one of the few tiles that we can improve from the get go here.

We could make an opening with worker first going agri -> finish worker, farm the corn (BW after agri), start another worker -> finish farm, switch worker to warrior for growth into size 2 -> when reaching size 2, work corn and gold -> chop second worker when BW is in -> finish warrior.

That would probably be a very good opening, getting a lot of commerce and 2 workers in no time. We could then chop/whip a settler or something.

This option ruins the possibility of a coastal city in the east, but leaves the possibility of a coastal city in the north.

1N - almost the same thing as 1E, but it ruins the coastal city to the north and gets both the possible strategic resources.

1W - Crazy good bureaucracy capital, with almost all the tiles being riverside. Settles on top of a probable strategic resource, which can be some sort of advantage against pillaging forces. Doesn't get the gold. We don't lose a turn moving, but we lose a turn while improving corn due to worker movement.

In place - Doesn't get the gold. Leaves possible coastal sites. Lots of riverside land. Doesn't lose turns.

There's still the possibility of a forest resource showing in one of the non-revealed tiles, like deer or a less important calendar one.


All that being said, I'm lost. Getting the gold means a significant early advantage (well, not that significant, since our city will have growth problems, so we won't be able to work the gold all the time). Our capital is going to be food poor, so we have to plan to not whip it too much, instead grow into the great happy cap it'll have and work cottages.

A capital settled in place or to the west is probably a better long term one, with more rivers and better backfill space. We can also work to have a pretty early second city up to connect the gold.

Decisions, decisions... I'm leaning towards 1E. Gold is too good to not get and will make our opening very fast. I also think a filler city to the north can have a lot of potential, helping grow cottages when needed and working the gold while the capital grows.

Looking at the map, I think whipping the capital will not be very common. We can fuel our early expansion with the crazy amount of forests near us (hint - get early mathematics fueled with gold) while grow in the cottages.

Anyway, that's my early thoughts.


By the way, the settings, if someone wants to risk doing a sandbox:

[Ilios]

Well, if we're going to lose a turn, why not just move 2E and make our capital Coastal?

The tile bleed shows that the coast continues east, which means we would have very few water tiles in the capital's bfc, and we still get the Corn and Gold. And who knows, we might even get another food resource in the fog?

Did you check if it's really coastal, or just a lake?

It would allow for a nice second city on the plains hill NW of the Ivory, and a third 2NW of the Corn tile.

Edit: and we would be able to pop that hut with the scout!

[Mardoc]

Settlers are downright cheap in BtS, and so are most of the worker techs. Therefore - the capital should be focused on getting you a fast start, more than just about anything else. If you've got a good enough start, you'll have enough extra land that a weaker long term capital is ok.

And if you don't, then a late-game strong capital won't pull you back into it. I'd suggest you get the gold . I won't join the debate on the exact tile, three voices is probably enough.

[Ichabod]

Well, if we're going to lose a turn, why not just move 2E and make our capital Coastal?

The tile bleed shows that the coast continues east, which means we would have very few water tiles in the capital's bfc, and we still get the Corn and Gold. And who knows, we might even get another food resource in the fog?

Did you check if it's really coastal, or just a lake?

It would allow for nice second city on the plains hill NW of the Ivory, and a third 2NW of the Corn tile.

Edit: and we would be able to pop that hut with the scout!

Yup, it's coast. I checked.

We would lose the river, though. And a lot of grassland tiles. I'd hate to give up on all that river and extra commerce. Rememeber that a financial river cottage starts at 3 commerce, which is incredibly nice.

Well, this is starting to make me think a 1N is the best. To hell with filler coastal cities. We would have so much riverside grassland settling 1N... And a city settled on the phants (2 hammer settle) would help working a lot of cottages. It wouldn't be able to work the gold while the capital grows, though... Man, could this be any harder...

Settling 1E also enables the hut popping with the scout (or even with the city borders).


EDIT: This city configuration can make us have an incredible Bureaucracy capital very, very early:

The 2 blue "X"s can help grow cottages. I know I'm repeating this "help grow cottages" thing, but my best teching rates in BTS always were based on early bureaucracy capitals helped by helper cities. That's why I don't want to lose all the river tiles too (what would happen if we moved to the coast).