[Spoilers] SleepingMoogle's thread

[SleepingMoogle]

Thanks for the headsup Athlete and Krill. I did notice the Ivory tile was forested, but for some reason thought it was a 2/1/1 tile.

Anyway, I loaded up the turn and had a quick look at the game settings:



The two important bits of information there are Monarch Difficulty and High Sea Level settings. It makes the Organized trait a decent enough to dampen the increased upkeep costs, and strengthens Dazedroyalty's leader pick. More important perhaps is the High Sea Level setting. Instead of larger continents, we might be on a map with islands instead, which if true increases the importance of naval units and structures. At this point it's too early to tell, but it may be better to use Workboats for scouting than regular units. Hopefully I'll have an idea on how big the starting landmass is soon enough. The land to the east of the starting position looks to be decently sized as well and may be a good candidate for future settling.

The Fish at the starting location made settling on the plains hill a done deal. With two food resources, this makes for a very neat capital and the sea level makes having a coastal city a pretty good idea as well. A Worker was queued up, using the Ivory tile to gain a bonus hammer for being expansive.



It should be a fair while before the save comes back to me since Serdoa is away for a couple of days. I'll probably run some sims in the meantime to best decide a course of action.

Anyone care to guess the naming theme? Given the names so far, it probably won't be too hard but let's see who recognizes them the fastest.

[SleepingMoogle]

Ugh.. I'm not sure why, but I really was out of it last night. It took until running a sim before I noticed that the forested hills were also in fact 2-hammer tiles. And don't worry, this will most certainly not be the last time mistakes like that will be made. Oh, and it's Dazedroyalty who's away instead of Serdoa of course.

Anyway, starting techs and builds more or less define what the open is going to look like. The Mining/Mysticism combination that the Mayans start with isn't too bad, but not great either since I'm not aiming for an early religion.

The techs that are of the highest priority right now are Bronze Working, Fishing, Hunting, then The Wheel and Pottery. Animal Husbandry, Writing and Sailing are probably next on the list, with AH being more important if BW fails to reveal any nearby Copper.

The first thing I found while running sims is that I need to tech something after Agriculture that gives the Worker something to do. If I were to tech Fishing before BW for example, the Worker would mine the bare hill after farming the Corn, and then have nothing else to do for a few turns other than build unneeded farms on grassland tiles. So the first tech after Agriculture should be either Hunting so the Ivory can be improved, or straight BW to start chopping away.

In addition, Unta doesn't have too much to build. It will want to get started on a Work Boat quickly, otherwise it'll be stuck on pumping out Warriors and Workers. So Fishing is something that shouldn't be delayed too much. For now, Agriculture -> BW -> Fishing -> Hunting (?) is probably best, where Unta trains a Warrior or two while growing and starts on a Workboat as soon as Fishing research finished. Timing a chop to go into the Workboat may require slow-building a mine, but that requires running some more sims.

What happens afterwards will mostly depend on what's happening in the actual game. If there's no Copper near, Animal Husbandry research to reveal Horses will probably become a priority. Yet the Wheel will enable connecting city sites, and hooking up the Ivory tile (which will be a 2/3/1 tile after being improved, and thus better than standard mines). I'm hoping to road that tile immediately after constructing the camp to avoid losing a Worker turn by moving back onto the tile later on. Whether or not this is possible is uncertain, though I could always pre-chop the tile and leave it for an emergency chop later on.

In addition, what should Unta be building after the initial Workboat? More Warriors? A second Worker? A scouting Workboat? Or start on a Settler perhaps? All of these may have some merit depending on what the situation in-game will look like in 15 turns or so.

[SleepingMoogle]

So this is interesting.. while running more sims, I found that on Quick speed, you actually gain a Worker turn by slow-building a mine. Chopping and mining separately take 3 turns each. Combining the two gets the job done in 5.

Something to keep in mind for sure.

[SleepingMoogle]

And we're off to a lightning start. The T1 save came back to me already, and we may be able to get in another turn or two since it's weekend. The pace will probably slow down again tomorrow though.

After loading up the save, I had a look at the demographics again since everyone settled on the first turn:



Since all Civs have the same amount of land and the same food and production, it's fairly certain that everyone had a similar coastal start. The rest of the demographics doesn't really tell much yet. GNP differences are because of Creative leaders having a culture edge, Soldier points are different due to starting techs, and Approval Rate and Life Expectancy figures are slightly different due to Charismatic and Expansive leaders respectively.

Since Unta's borders expand at the end of the turn, the water tiles northeast of the Warrior will be revealed by default. Whiskeyjack moved NW instead and I wasn't displeased with the results at all. This screenshot was taken after the turn ended, and Unta's borders had expanded:



The north is looking pretty decent so far, with another Fish and irrigated Corn, as well as a few hills for production. It's rather hard to see but the coastline looks to be curving towards the NW in the fog, and it may be possible to plant a coastal city that can take advantage of both resources. The city borders also covered the hills to the south, giving good visibility on the tiles in that direction. It's pretty green but without resources, so the north definitely looks better so far. Perhaps most interesting of all is the land revealed to the east. That Silver resource will help boost commerce and happiness, so the land to the east should definitely be scouted soon. Also, the trees to the east don't have a snow mantle. Perhaps we're playing on a tiltes axis map of some kind?

Sims continue for now, and I hope to having something decent out for tonight.

No guesses towards the naming theme yet?

[pling]

Naming theme = Malazan Book of the Fallen?

[SleepingMoogle]

Naming theme = Malazan Book of the Fallen?

And we have a winner!

[pocketbeetle]

And what is it?

[SleepingMoogle]

It's an epic fantasy series that's unfortunately not as well-known as it deserves to be. Probably not top quality, but I enjoyed reading it and can recommend it to anyone looking for something that moves away from established high fantasy.

If you're familiar with the Tales of the Black Company (another often-overlooked gem), the author took a lot of inspiration from the series so the style is quite similar.

[SleepingMoogle]

Turn 2 and the joy continues:



Not a curving coast, but the second Fish resource is a very nice consolation price. I put down an early marker that would capitalize on both fish resources. Although looking at the picture, planting on the hill N of the Warrior would gain access to the Corn as well. Is it worth losing the fresh water and coastal plant? Quite possibly, but even without the Corn, this makes for a great second city. By leveraging the Fish, I could get out a quick Library and run scientists to get out a quick Great Scientist for an early Academy in the capital. And down the line, the city could make for a good Great People farm or draft camp.

The big question would be whether it would be a safe play if there's no Copper available in the city's BFC's. If I'm alone on the landmass, the answer would be yes, however it's looking to be quite sizeable so far.

[SleepingMoogle]

Alright, after running some simulations, it looks like picking up Fishing before Bronze Working works out better in the end. Getting the Fish hooked up faster gains extra commerce which pushes down the research time (and lost Worker turns as well), and the additional food makes for faster growth. The only downside is that it'll be longer before I have visibility on Copper but this may be worth chancing if I don't meet anyone else soon.

Currently, I would be looking at finishing the first Settler around T22. I'll also have trained a second Worker, 2 Warriors and a Work Boat to hook up one of the Fish resources up north. Finetuning can probably shave off a turn or two so this looks like the best start.