[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Commodore]

So, how will this game go? Honestly, I'm not sure. But I have some general ideas.

It's kind of interesting how the combos are looking, none are them are incredibly weedy. Solid, strong leaders with nothing horrible in the bunch, and nothing pushing early craziness. It ought to be fun to see. The glut of medieval UUs says something ought to happen around then.

Yuri, with the strongest combo, is a true builder at heart, and probably won't be wanting to make aggressive moves, instead wisely building up, and the rest of the field is similar in many ways. I'm the only card-carrying warmonger, although Davy loves his battles in the late game. We all want to build our little empires and then in our golden era, explode. The earliest is Miskabob, wanting to build up to a 'phract assault. Yuri and Dave are next, with Gunpowder opening up solid draftable attack forces. Gaspar and I aren't really equipped with earth-shaking UUs, but he's fond of the rifle/infantry time, and I'd like to start an economic boom in the late industrial era with the sudden MFG boost that Org factories enable. So we're all builders at first here.

Now watch Gaspar warrior choke someone, and me talk myself into a chariot rush. :rolleyes:

[Ceiliazul]

Now watch Gaspar warrior choke someone, and me talk myself into a chariot rush. :rolleyes:

Checking in as ded-lurk, reprising my own role in the Hyborean empire. Time constrained as I am, I don't expect to do as much demo tracking as I did the first time...

[SevenSpirits]

Checking in too. I will surprisingly end up dedlurking one of your opponents, and from this position inflict cruel and wanton punishment upon your civilization.

[Commodore]

Checking in as ded-lurk, reprising my own role in the Hyborean empire. Time constrained as I am, I don't expect to do as much demo tracking as I did the first time...

Checking in too. I will surprisingly end up dedlurking one of your opponents, and from this position inflict cruel and wanton punishment upon your civilization.

:thumbsdow

I admire your bravery, Commodore-san!

[Commodore]

Well, it looks like we're getting a map soon, so that is going to change everything I'm sure, but some general thoughts:

A script-made Pangaea should definitely favor me over, say, Gaspar and Davy. Scripts tend to make considerably less lush maps than humans, although I'm sure it's going to get dolled up a bit. The upshot is that fishing villages are much stronger without great land, and nobody is like Darius for spamming cheap, quick-starting fishing villages. The only trouble, of course, is that Yuri has a great shot at the Colossus...which make his fishing villages 33.3% better than mine, should he land it.

Pangaeas are interesting for the GLH. I expect to have lots of coastal cities, which means lots of four-route cities...but also, not many islands. So think about the situation post Currency...I can either have OB with a couple other people, for two +2gpt routes per city, or the GLH and be embargoed, for four +1gpt routes per coastal city. Now obviously, if I'm behind some people will be more willing to open borders despite the GLH, and the script can sometimes throw out island clusters that would make it worth it. But unless I see either exception case forming, I'm not going to move heaven and earth to snag the GLH...which is the only early wonder I even have a slight comparative advantage towards.

With spies on, there is one wonder I'm going to go hell-for-leather towards if I can, and that's the Great Wall. A great spy is hyper-efficient, and when you consider my UB and UU tell me to go towards rathausai and then Engineering (Castles!), an EP-economy is definitely viable. I also have no clue how to run one well...Ruff/Nospace around? You guys ought to have at least half a clue.

[plako]

Your starting position:



Good luck!

[Commodore]

Thanks Plako!

Hum. Well, first impressions:
-Hellooooo, grassland deer. You look lovely and are really reinforcing my bad habits.
-The wet wheat is awesome, and Agriculture should probably come first anyway.
-Glad I have a scout, need to examine the seafood situation carefully up there.

General thoughts about capital location, starting with least likely.

-1NW on deer. Pluses: Lots of cottage riverside grass, six forests, fast worker out, first-turn plant. Minuses: Wastes precious, precious deer. Kills off any seafood option.

-NE, E on plains hill. Pluses: PH start, at least seven forests, cannot orphan seafood. Minuses: Lose deer for uncertain fog-resources and probably less riverside.

-NE, SE on plains hill. Pluses: PH start, at least eight forests, cannot orphan seafood. Minuses: Lose deer for uncertain fog-resources and probably less riverside.

-1N on plain. Pluses: Eats ugly plain tile, seven forests, first-turn plant. Minuses: Can orphan seafood.

-1E on riverside plain. Pluses: Tons of riverside cottages, cannot orphan north seafood, first-turn plant. Minuses: Wastes BFC coast, only four forests, might orphan southward food.

-N, NW on plains hill. Pluses: PH plant, tons of riverside cottages, obvious second share site(s). Five forests is neutral. Minuses: Wastes BFC coast, kills seafood options.

-N,NW, NE on plains. Pluses: Eats ugly plain, opens a ton of Fin coast. Neutral is five forests. Coastal capital can be a mixed thing, but sans islands probably more a minus. Minuses: NO riverside grassland, weak-long term.

So right now I'm thinking of moving the scout N, SW and then going for one of the more northern plants depending on the seafood situation. Ceiliazul this is your cue to stand athwart these plans yelling "stop".

[Commodore]

In case it's not incredibly clear, right now I favor settling on the plains hill where the scout is if doing so doesn't orphan seafood. It's not a great site long-term and I'll probably want to move the capital someplace better eventually, but its a good fast start. It looks like there is more land east than west, but pangaeas are prone to look really, really weird so no clue how that translates to where anyone else is.

[Ceiliazul]

STOP!

hammer time.

I think I see a river delta there directly west of your settler. If that's saltwater, then scout SE-SE migh reveal seafood too. riverside/coastal with deer sounds pretty inviting.

Only recommendation so far is do some flying camera work before moving the scout. See if the land to your West goes more than 2ish tiles. Any more land that way makes orphaned seafood a smaller concern.

[Mardoc]

scout SE-SE migh reveal seafood too.

I'm pretty sure that's impossible, SE-SE would have the scout standing on the lake. Perhaps you meant SW-SW?