So CRE/FIN, CHM/FIN and SPI/IND are all taken. CRE/FIN would have been nice, if I wasn't going to focus on wonders. SPI/PHI is still alluring, but I really don't like kjn staring me down with SPI/IND. I'm leaning towards FIN/PHI. I can pick up an early religion for solid culture, and FIN + settled scientists + academy would allow for a killer capital.
I think my level of laziness will determine which one I go with. I still feel like doing SPI/PHI and go for the Pyramids plan, but it's SO much more work. Both getting the slingshot right and managing the pyramid economy afterwards. FIN/PHI is pretty straightforward, work cottages and foster scientists.
I will wuss out and go with Elizabeth (PHI/FIN). It's an easy strategy that can't really go wrong. Maybe I'll go for Stonehenge, if I land that and an early religion I'm well set culture-wise. Will also get me a GP earlier, although I'd prefer my first GP be a scientist.
Elizabeth might not be bad at all for a Pyramids run. I'm still wary of kjn attempting Oracle => MC as well. Just read up on him and he did that in adventure 54 and was very pleased with it. On this map Oracle => MC is worth a lot less since there is no Colossus, and he won't be able to slingshot Pyramids with an engineer without PHI. But if he goes for Oracle => Monarchy, I'm screwed. Going to ponder it a little more, don't need a decision for turn 1.
I wish I had a fishing start, that 3/0/3 tile would be awesome to start out with. A cautious start would be Agriculture/BW, farming the rice first then mining a hill and chopping a forest.
Decided to go BW => Fishing, I will be able to skip Agriculture entirely that way if I decide to go for Pyramids. AT came visiting with a warrior, so I put my normal warrior in my capital and sent my other warrior on its way home. He left again, so I wasted some exploration time on that.
Had a chat with Sian where he pointed out that I was all but ignoring the fact that AT will have charismatic war chariots, and I'm the softest target of the 3 of us. kjn has skirmishers, sticks has Impi and I have tasty fast workers. I'm going to settle on top of the copper for security, if I leave it open for pillaging I might be in trouble fast. Also, the Pyramids plan is all but dead and buried. Already I'm out of my comfort zone in a game this aggressive, no need to draw more attention to myself. I still want to grab an early religion for a quick border pop in my expansion. Thinking about going for GLib instead.
I've been halfway considering settling on the banana instead of the copper, and I think I'm going to go for that.
Banana
+1 food
Gains grassland deer 5/1/0
Gains 2x grass river, 1x plains river, 1x river GH + 1x river PH
Gains 3rd ring marble
Allows a 3/1/0 tile to be worked right away for +4 food and +2h
Makes use of a banana tile that will otherwise be unworkable for a long time
1t delay in founding, 1t delay in trade route connection (after founding), 5t delay in hooking up copper
Copper
+25% defense
Faster and more secure copper access
Gains plains cow 3/3/0
Gains flood plains, 2x plains river, GH river, GH
Starts out working 2/0/3 lake for +2 food and +3 hammers
Little bit closer to the capital
Copper option is a little safer, banana option is stronger both short-term and long-term as long as I manage to get military units out in a timely manner.
Ideally, I'll then pink dot AT on the forest PH in between the two peaks to the north east. In theory that can be followed up by another fortress city on the forest PH NE of the rice. Not a great location for economy, but awesome for defense.
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
I'd lean towards settling on copper specially given the small scale of the map ... that on Banana might be long term better is no good if someone plants something big and nasty on your copper pillaging it and then pick you appart piece for piece with you hardly having any possible defense. 2f3h1c city aren't half bad considering
Started with Mining and Mysticism
=> Bronze Working
=> Fishing
=> Wheel
=> Meditation (finishing this next turn)
=> Hunting
=> Agriculture
=> Animal Husbandry
=> Pottery
Sian Wrote:I'd lean towards settling on copper specially given the small scale of the map ... that on Banana might be long term better is no good if someone plants something big and nasty on your copper pillaging it and then pick you appart piece for piece with you hardly having any possible defense. 2f3h1c city aren't half bad considering
I forgot 1h for the copper site (had the city tile at 2h), which does indeed make it a bit better. So I probably should have settled on top of it, yeah. I went for the banana site, we'll see where it takes us. I really like getting +4 food instantly, and I think the extra speed will help out a lot if I can stay safe. Conversely, the copper site wouldn't need as much worker manpower to get up and running.
First city raised upkeep by 6gpt, yikes! And to make matters worse, I delayed Meditation by switching to Hunting rather than just lowering the slider. Which means that now I can't finish Meditation on time I will be severely annoyed if someone else beats me to it next turn. Fortunately, bananas + deer + a nearby lake tile means I will be able to survive the expansion costs soon enough. Delhi has grown to size 2, working clams + ivory while building a second fast worker.
![[Image: t18-expansion.JPG]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42444862/PBEM42/t18-expansion.JPG)
I will be severely annoyed if someone else beats me to it next turn. Fortunately, bananas + deer + a nearby lake tile means I will be able to survive the expansion costs soon enough. Delhi has grown to size 2, working clams + ivory while building a second fast worker.