Woden's and Chevalier Mal Fet's [Insert Clever Name Here] Team Thread

[Woden]

Thanks Chevalier Mal Fet! I was pretty sure they were included but wanted to double check.

I did send Cornflakes our picks and positions. You should have also received the message as I Bcc'd you.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yep, looks good.

So, I think I want to settle in place, barring the warrior discovering something amazing in his move. Right now I have horses and silks in the second ring, but a move either way will put the other into the third. I've got a couple of hills for mines, and abundant forests and jungles for chopping.

If I cross the river, I could bring that hill tile southwest of the horses into the second ring, without pushing any other hills out to the third. But it pushes the silks back (while bringing the jade closer). That might be viable, but I think unnecessary. I want to stay away from the desert tiles, anyway - can't put a pyramid on 'em to make 'em useful.

[Woden]

Sounds good.

I am going to have to move across the river and not be able to settle until T2. The question is: Do I settle the plains or the desert? I am leaning towards the desert next to the lake. This allows to still have a location for my UI and get the extra 20% boost to districts, opens up the plains tile for a Commercial Hub, brings the Jade to 2nd ring but moves the a copper to 3rd ring but also opens the visible tile SW of copper for a city. Horses are also 1st ring plus the first tile grab should be the Jade or Wheat and I will have 3 good tiles to improve. Downside is that it moves a bunch of production out to third ring. Still think it is the better move.

Edit: I will say, I am a little disappointed that both the starts are food poor. No 3 food tiles in sight. But I am not going to complain because they are production heavy and may take a little but to get going but once they do, watch out!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Well, I have a bananas tile in the first ring, that should be 3 food, yeah?

And yeah, I think settling next to the lake is the best spot. There's plenty of production around, so I don't think that moving it to the third ring is too damaging.

With teams, how will 1 horse apiece work? Will we both be able to produce horsemen, or should we trade so that one player has 2 copies?

[Woden]

I total glanced over the bananas, since I couldn't see the yield. This is good for our starting strategy. I think it would best to start with each of us to chase a branch of the civic tree at the start. I was thinking I would go for Craftsmanship and State Workforce, since I will want the Agoge card as fast as I can and have bonuses to district production. This means you go for Foreign Trade and Early Empire.

So my start would look something like:
Builds: Slinger->Builder->Slinger->Slinger->Builder->Slinger->Holy Site (Chopped)->Slinger->Project(Chopped)->Project
Civics: Code of Laws->Craftsmanship->Foreign Trade->State Workforce->Early Empire->PP
Techs:->Animal Husbandry->Astrology (50%)->Mining->Pottery->Irrigation

The idea would be to research Astrology to 50% so that we can build a Holy Site as soon as we find a Natural Wonder. I am also shooting for the first religion and want to get Jesuit Education to be able to faith buy buildings and with that plan, I am think Goddess of the Harvest instead of City Patron Goddess as a Pantheon to build up faith.

As for your start;
Builds: Slinger/Scout->Settler->Slinger/Warrior->Builder/Trader
Civics: Code of Laws->Foreign Trade->Craftsmanship->Early Empire->State Workforce->PP
Techs: Animal Husbandry->Pottery->Writing->Currency(?)

No sure about your tech path right now but with teams, we will want to map out which techs/civics to research based on what eurekas/inspirations we each can get that may be difficult for the other player. that way, we can maximize the number of boost we get while minimizing the amount of stuff we need to build to get the boosts.

I don't think we get shared resources and will probably have to trade resources. I think it might be best to have each of us prioritize who builds what type of military. I should build ranged units, maybe you could focus on Calvary or Melee, depending on available resources. Do you know if you can trade units? Can I build a bunch of archers and give you some of them? I am not sure if it matters too much since we play back-to-back. I will add that I am thinking of trying to build more encampments this game. The last few PBEMs I only built 1 or 2 and real think they are useful as they provide production and housing plus added experience and are the only district that gets a production card (Veterancy), so they should be quick to build at +50%/+70% production bonus (Side note: I have a feeling we will get a few GG this game).

Anyways, just a few thoughts. I will try to write up a general strategy outline soon (hopefully before the weekend).

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yep. We want to avoid duplication as much as possible, and I was thinking pretty much identically with you - I want to focus on the upper half of the tech tree, where Square Rigging is a pretty short hop away, and you want to concentrate on the ranged techs near the bottom. Now, I do have a question - I know when one partner finishes a tech, the other gets an inspiration/eureka. What about inspirations themselves, though? Are those shared between civs - you finish 3 improvements and *I* get the inspiration, too? Or does it only pop when you finish the tech? It'd be nice, for example, if you happened to found a coastal city before me for me to get the Sailing eureka without you having to fully research the tech (I want to get Celestial Navigation as soon as possible to start laying down the RNDs).

Second, I agree with the starts, for the most part, but I don't think we have any chance of grabbing the first religion. The boosted district construction will give us an edge over Team Japper/Mike and Archduke/Emperor, but Brick and Singaboy can spam out Stonehenge for the cost of a builder to guarantee first pick. We will probably have to settle for second, with a backup to Jesuit Education.

Also, are you comfortable not building a settler that long? I was toying with an idea in my head - if it's possible to gift units (not sure), then during an expansion phase one of us could run Ilkum for builders while the other runs Colonization, giving us a much more efficient use of policy slots. I'm pretty sure you CAN gift units - I think Dave was speculating about gifting Japper some defensive troops in PBEM4 - but I'm not certain.

FInally, I like the idea of you grabbing a GG or two. Since I can confidently hope to dominate the GA pool, that would give us quite a formidable array of armed forces. I think I ought to build a core of horsemen in the beginning turns, enough to serve as a quick reaction force for emergencies. Melee units I don't want to spend hammers on unless absolutely necessary - I'd rather use the horses/navy to capture a foreign city and use the free ones. With two horses right at the start, we can guarantee one or both of us can always crank 'em out.

[Woden]

I am not certain but I don't think we share inspiration/eurekas. I guess we will see and we could test. For your example with Sailing. If I find a city on the coast before you, I will just have to research Sailing, so you can get the eureka. I think once we get going a little bit we should be able to have enough options that we can research techs/civic half way and wait if the other has the boost and can research it.

As for the late settler, I think the religion race will be more important. Even if I don't get the first one, if we push as fast as we can, we might be to still get an classical prophet for 60 points, versus a medieval one at 120. Plus, since you are going for Early Empire, I don't need the inspiration and can build the first one with the card. Since I am holding off a little bit on the settler, I will push 2 or 3 out back-to-back. Gifting Settler might not be a good idea since the cost scale so quickly and I don't know if a gifted settler counts towards the increase to the gift-ie.

As for melee, it might be a good idea to build a few warriors to have them around in case you need a melee for something. They have no maintenance and could be upgrade in an emergency. Just a thought.

[Woden]

One other thing that we should look into is meeting city-states. Since we share vision, who gets the envoy on first meet. We meet them on the same turn. I would assume whoever actually meets them but what about if a city-state moves and meets you between turns but I play before you. Do I get the envoy since I play before you actually meet them?

[Woden]

Also, just realized something, it may look like I am pushing the settler out a long ways but my Slingers don't take long to build. Remember, I start with 50% production bonus and once I get Agoge going, I should be able to 2 turn them if I have at least 9 production, which I should have at 3 population. If my calculations are right, I should be close to starting my 2nd builder when you finish the settler (if we have the same production). Roughly 120 (3 slingers @67% cost plus builder) versus 115 (slinger and settler).

[Woden]

Did some quick testing for a few turns with teams:
1. I didn't see an option to gift units and after doing a quick web search, it looks like you can NOT gift units.
2. Teammates do NOT get inspirations/eurekas when the other gets them, only when the tech/civic is finished.
3. Whoever finds the CS, gets the envoy.

It was a pretty bad map, so I didn't play too long. You do get the eureka for Writing and inspiration for Diplomatic Service on T1. I will probably try another one in the coming turns to see about strategic resources but my gut says each needs 2 sources when building without an encampment.