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

[WilliamLP]

For the starting file, I generated it with the Big and Small script. I know the dimensions are in some XML somewhere, but I haven't researched yet where to find it.

The time when we really need the updated sandbox is when we know where we want our second (and maybe 3rd) cities to go. I don't think there's much that can change now in plans between now and about turn 32. Something else first instead of pottery is debatable, but it's a tough debate - being able to chop a granary immediately in a new city with Exp, plus cottages, is pretty nice.

[WilliamLP]

Kuro's scout moved SE. Borders expanded, and I didn't move the scout yet:



The land to the west is, conclusively, a peninsula. I think that takes away all the urgency to scout there. There can't be anything that makes us say "OMG Need to settle NOW", I don't think, like gold or gems or ivory.

I can't say I'm blown away by our land, or even know where our second city should be yet. By the banana is, disappointingly, some jungle tiles. We have a couple of calendar resources.

So we've really got two choices:
- Scout around to the E
- Scout up N

Thoughts?

Demos after everyone's border popped except Azza:



It looks like we've got a lot of water in the capital, relatively speaking. Someone has a compltely land-locked capital, at 21 tiles, and we know one more has 20.

[Plunder]

I'd definitely want to know where their capital is, and what resources they have. Maybe they are starved for health and have some decent happiness? That would open some trade options. And of course there is this "If you know your enemy (...), your victory will not stand in doubt" ;-) so my vote is for N.

Also, the average soldiers dropped quiet a bit. Did many of our opponents loose a scout to animals?

I think East is our preferred direction of expansion. Maybe we can get a moai-city on the peninsula?

I think there is at least one person with a worse start than us (Assuming he/she doesn't focus on commerce) The rival worst 2-food doesn't seem to be compensated by a 4 hammer (as is the case for us). So that person might be working a plains forest?

[WilliamLP]

For soldier count, this is the best reference I've seen: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy...aphics.php. We have 4k power rating only because of wheel tech. Scouts are worth nothing. Animals haven't appeared yet, they should start after this turn. Mining and hunting are worth 2k each. Every two population points in cities is worth 1k.

Moved scout along the coast to N:



Next move onto the grass hill seems obvious.

I noticed KuroBaII stayed logged in for 45 minutes after ending turn. Maybe they really wanted to see which direction our scout was going to move!

The contested site 1SE of the scout would be a pretty good city and seal us off after a border pop. True, it would be nice to know where KuroBaII's capital is, to know how "Pink Dot"-ish that is.

[Plunder]

Scout E-NE is obvious yes.
I didn't know that wheel counts for military count and scouts do not. I'll look through that site a bit more ^.^

A city SE of the scout would be a pretty decent site, but it'll be also hard to defend. It's far away to send reinforcements to.

I feel that 1N of the cows would be a formidable site to seal of our lands, but the city location in itself is not that great. Is it possible to build forts on desert? Then we could make a channel from east to west.

[WilliamLP]

Well damn:



We're close! Ok, the peaks are, indeed, a fair natural border. Keep scouting around up there I assume, or go back to our land and look what our NE part looks like? It's important to know whether they have room to grow to the N, since otherwise war is probably going to be inevitable.

Checking EP ratios, we've spent 8 on each other, so it's likely that we're KuroBaII's only contact so far.

TIL: Life expectancy isn't years, it's actually a percentage! (What?) You take total health, divided by total health plus unhealth. In our case, we have 5 (10 forests I think?) + 2 (fresh water) + 2 (expansive) + 2 (difficulty level bonus) for 11, and one unhealthy for pop, and I guess it truncates 11/12 to 91%. 12/13 would be 92%, so someone has a bit more health than us. But note that EXP, and settling on river, both inflate our score, so the conclusion that we have more forests than average might be wrong.

Approval is the same thing, only for happiness. We have 5 / 6 for 83%, CHA has an extra happiness point, so has 6 / 7 for 85%, which is the leading score.

Because these are truncated (not rounded), it leads me to suspect the other numbers are too, like average food.

Also, we're last with 13 land tiles. Someone else also has 13.

[Plunder]

I think scouting up there is important, our warriors will take care of the east. I think we want to know how the land is up there. Maybe from that we can guess how KuroBaII will play. I do expect to see tundra and frozen forest soon up there and if their east will close with sea soon, we might have to prepare for an early war.

I suggest scout NE and then 1S2E.

12 tiles separation (including the capital tiles) is not that close is it? It's what you predicted earlier if I remember correctly.

[WilliamLP]

I think I like E-E, to give us a bit of head start, unless there's a case why the plains hill is better? It won't let us see the capital tile because of the forest. I know barbs won't spawn within view of a city, and I know they won't spawn within 2 tiles of any unit. I think also, they won't spawn within two tiles of a tile in culture. Can someone correct me on this if I'm wrong?

[Plunder]

Ah, the forest block our LoS, too bad =(
The hill was with barb animals in mind yes

[WilliamLP]

Turn 7 scout move:



TIL: I read T-Hawk's page on score mechanics. http://www.dos486.com/civ4/index/score.shtml

See the breakdown of our score in that screenshot to see the four components. Actually, the number of land tiles on the map is right there! (2077). I got that number with math earlier, but I didn't need to. For land to count for score, you need to hold it for 20 turns.

Our wonder score is the palace, presumably. Every other wonder will see a jump of 16 in score for someone (or 17 with fraction overflow).

Pop growths will be worth 2-3 points.

Ancient techs are worth about 6 points, so Suttree's score increase is a tech, most likely Fishing, or Hunting. I'm not going to worry about this much, but we should at least watch and try to guess what Kuro is doing. If we were really into it we'd be tracking the change in average power every turn, I guess, that would tell us if certain techs were researched since hunting is a power boost. So are warrior builds though so it would all be a kind of arithmetic puzzle. The vets here doubtlessly know a lot more tricks.

I'm very confident that Pizza and Pasta will be able to overcome Big Business, in this game. Their lead in thread view count won't save them.

Edit: here are the demos. It's not that hard to snapshot it every turn... We see that max power went to 6000, which does mean a research of hunting, I think.