[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[Plunder]

The only real objection I have against the bananas is that doesn't move us in the direction of the gold. We'll still have to deal with a distant somewhat disconnected city then.

[WilliamLP]

True, though if we wait until sailing to settle the gold city, the nice thing is the trade route is nearly already there. And it's not a city that needs quick defense against a human player.

We rolled to turn 37. Two chops finish next turn, completing the settler EOT38. The warrior is on his way to hang out by the banana. For the scout, my plan is to use him right now to prevent spawns. Either the hill he's at now or the forest NE aren't bad spots. They prevent spawns between our capital and the future gold city. Another idea is to use him as a sentry between us and Kuro but I don't really see the need until we see a suspicious rise in their power. They need their 1 warrior at home as much as we do.

I've got a micro plan I'm fairly happy with, we get AH on turn 52, second settler turn 53, third settler turn 57. This allows the gold city fairly fast, plus another strategic city, maybe if we need to claim horse. If we don't have horses... well I don't know what to say.

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, it's just my initials but I've been suspected of being Lord Parkin a couple of times here while lurking, too!

Because of course, were I to create a pseudonym for an alter ego here, I would choose one that could be immediately recognized.

Rather late to the party, but I wish you a good game. Looks like you got unlucky with Copper, in your immediate vicinity at least... hopefully Horses will turn up. Interesting choice for your second city location. Would you mind posting your F6 screen?

[Plunder]

If we don't have horses we have all right to blame the mapmaker.


what about second city, S of the scout and third being our gold then?

[Plunder]

[Lord Parkin]

Thanks. Skimming through the images I wasn't sure about exactly which techs you had and which were researched in sims.

what about second city, S of the scout and third being our gold then?

1S or 2S? The latter is okay, though does need a Monument to get going.

My personal inclination is usually to first make bold moves outwards and then to backfill easy locations later - of course depending on the land and the neighbours. Playing that way is risky though, and it's easy to be caught out if you're too ambitious. So do whatever you're comfortable doing.

[Plunder]

We haven't met any other neighbour except BaII and kuro in the north. The land in between is everything except interesting.
So I don't think there is a need to make a bold move and claim some contested resources. I feel it's stronger to settle closer and build a strong economy instead.
Especially with no copper, risky play is double risky ;-)

2S is maybe a better city location, but 1S makes better shape ;-)

[Lord Parkin]

We haven't met any other neighbour except BaII and kuro in the north. The land in between is everything except interesting.

Yeah... it's not too bad, but it certainly leaves a lot to be desired.

So I don't think there is a need to make a bold move and claim some contested resources. I feel it's stronger to settle closer and build a strong economy instead.

Bold moves and strong economies aren't always mutually exclusive. Definitely more risky though.

2S is maybe a better city location, but 1S makes better shape ;-)

The shape is always the most important consideration.

[Plunder]

So I don't think there is a need to make a bold move and claim some contested resources. I feel it's stronger to settle closer and build a strong economy instead.

Bold moves and strong economies aren't always mutually exclusive. Definitely more risky though.

Well, you do need a lot of commuting with the workers, and using turns to prepare the roads. This would definitely slow you down. I guess a lot also depends on your planning, and the land surrounding your capital. We started with only forests in our BFC (and one pigs), so that really slowed us down in improving the surrounding land. So we don't really have workers free to prepare a bold move.
At least, so are my thoughts on this .

[WilliamLP]

Parkin: Thanks for stopping by and giving your thoughts. It's easier to be bold in this game without warrior defenders, isn't it? My read on this is that without copper we're in "don't die" mode. We don't want to be Rego in PB2. Otherwise I would have wanted to make some dramatic move too, probably going all-in for GLH.

It's hard to tell right now what "backfill" is. If those three-mountain ranges are a mapmaker sign, then there is a player just to the south.

Plunder: Settling a city without a food bonus is a non-starter. Period. Read more Sullla posts. A city that needs a border pop to get more than +2 food is also not an option right now. I'm not someone who thinks higher level input isn't valuable without micro details, but... at this point if you want to change my mind you'll need to follow my plan that's up, and show me you can do better specifically.

What advantages are there to having a second city between, if we settle the gold city third? They are very few as I see it. Defense against human players isn't needed. It only needs 1 road to hook up trade routes after sailing. The worker turns to eventually road from the capital to it are the same regardless, except plus one perhaps. Maintenance cost is the same. Why get hung up on it?

The turn rolled... Both chops completed, so we'll have the settler (and pottery) next turn.

I realize that by going Pottery->Agri instead of Agri->Pottery we've wasted 25 beakers of prereq bonus. This is because of hindsight, of course, because I thought there were more advantages to delaying Agriculture (early religion, sailing, etc.) and we actually don't have a dire need for it immediately. But the question now is do we get 25 beakers of benefit out of having pottery 5-6 turns earlier? I actually think so, because every time we grow with a full granary we get an extra 11/12/13/etc. food for free, and having it earlier means we only need to get one of those for it to be a win.

Demos:




I'm not following the foreign scene too closely right now, other than Kuro. Someone has a size 4 city. Oxy, Molach, and Sisu all settled, which means we are the last ones to plant a second city! I regret nothing! Maybe I'm wrong but I'm expecting us to be one of the first to plant a 4th city.