SPOILERS : Twinkletoes' Mystery Thread - PBEM7

[Twinkletoes89]

Opponent stuff now updated (finally)

[Whosit]

Nice update on the opponents. Now, some stats:

Expansive: 4
Creative: 2.5
Imperialistic: 1
Industrious: 1
Charismatic: 1
Organized: 1

Expansive is quite popular! And Expansive India can be quite frightening if played right. I hope we don't start near them. Otherwise ...

Looking at the numbers, there's no one we'd want to start by. They are either Creative (or faking it ) or they are Imperialistic. Dazedroyalty clearly picked a leader/civ to REX REX REX and dare someone to challenge the claim. Serdoa is going to spam Settlers, SM has creative to secure claims (and kind of a partial Charismatic in the cheap Ball courts), and Scooter has those stupid terraces.

Hate to say it, TT, but based purely on leader/civ combos, you are the civ everyone probably wants to start next to! Doesn't mean we can't make that work for us, though. Believe it or not, Charismatic also makes you the most fearsome warlord out of everyone (serdoa is second with the 100% Great General generation rate) with the cheaper promotions. Definitely want Barracks in troop-producing cities, since all troops will be 1 victory away from promotion 2. Oh, and the Janissaries.

You'll want a Settler ASAP, but gotta wait at least for BW, probably AH, too, to find those strategic resources.

Those're my thoughts for now.

[Twinkletoes89]

Nice update on the opponents. Now, some stats:

Expansive: 4
Creative: 2.5
Imperialistic: 1
Industrious: 1
Charismatic: 1
Organized: 1

Expansive is quite popular! And Expansive India can be quite frightening if played right. I hope we don't start near them. Otherwise ...

Looking at the numbers, there's no one we'd want to start by. They are either Creative (or faking it ) or they are Imperialistic. Dazedroyalty clearly picked a leader/civ to REX REX REX and dare someone to challenge the claim. Serdoa is going to spam Settlers, SM has creative to secure claims (and kind of a partial Charismatic in the cheap Ball courts), and Scooter has those stupid terraces.

Hate to say it, TT, but based purely on leader/civ combos, you are the civ everyone probably wants to start next to! Doesn't mean we can't make that work for us, though. Believe it or not, Charismatic also makes you the most fearsome warlord out of everyone (serdoa is second with the 100% Great General generation rate) with the cheaper promotions. Definitely want Barracks in troop-producing cities, since all troops will be 1 victory away from promotion 2. Oh, and the Janissaries.

You'll want a Settler ASAP, but gotta wait at least for BW, probably AH, too, to find those strategic resources.

Those're my thoughts for now.

Sounds familiar - just look at PBEM3!!

I agree with your thoughts entirely. Lets hope I can crack some heads to teach them for underestimating Charismatic lol!

[Kyan]

Haven't got long but please read this as me begging you to reconsider your tech choices. I think skipping fishing and therefore the extra food tile is a HUGE mistake.

Food = everything in the early game. Everything. No exceptions.

You'd rather get hunting just for that one ivory tile for an extra happiness? You're charismatic man! You can survive a bit longer without the resource.

In my opinion, my tech path would have been fishing -> mining -> BW -> Hunting -> Pottery

BUT as pottery has been started now i would heavily advise:

pottery -> fishing -> mining -> BW -> hunting.

Use the BW to chop out another couple of workers and get to work. Trust me. (sorry whosit for disagreeing with pretty much all you wrote lol).

[Twinkletoes89]

I know what you are getting at but I know that getting Pottery up quickly is a big thing for this game. I have an advantage over every other player in this game and I should use it!

Getting Granaries and Cottages earlier than everyone else is surely a big advantage that I should exploit?

I do like Fishing as a tech as it gives me the extra food but it also can give me some intelligence on the map with a workboat scouting the considerable amount of water nearby.

In terms of my basic tech plan - it was a first attempt at it and I am still figuring out exactly what I am after. Pottery first and BW quick were the only ones which were non-negotiable.

I do agree with Fishing second - as a second 5 food tile will give me quicker workers and settlers alongside the ivory tile.

I think your tech plan is sound - though I may put AH before hunting really as it may be more beneficial to see where horses are asap - as that is more important than 1 extra happiness in the short-term. That isn't in concrete yet though.

[Whosit]

Considering I've become more vocal in some areas about the importance of food, I guess it could be hypocritical of my to disagree with Kyan .... Well, the advantage of netting the fish is faster Growth and faster Worker/Settler builds. Didn't really think about the last bit. I didn't think that having the fish was super-important if the capital was going to work mostly grassland tiles, but I guess faster growth is still faster growth. Pottery > Fishing does give the Worker something to do while the Work Boat is build, I guess.

Though I will say: You can never have enough happy! And hunting before AH if you're planning to get both quickly, anyway, since Hunting provides a discount to AH.

So, guess TT will decide which of the madmen to listen to.

[Twinkletoes89]

I am sticking with Ky on Fishing second for this one - but I see your point of the Hunting discount. It will be considered.

In terms of builds/ worker actions, this is the first attempt at a plan.

Builds: (Risky) Worker -> Granary (part) -> Work Boat -> Granary (Comp) -> Warrior
(Safe) Worker -> Warrior (part) -> Work Boat -> Warrior (Comp) -> Granary

Worker: Corn -> Cottage -> Cottage -> Road -> Chop (depends on tech pace of course)

[Whosit]

I'd probably go with the safer build, just because you won't have Slavery to save your butt in case one of your neighbors gets frisky.

[Twinkletoes89]

Well I tell you what - Krill either lacks enough variety in his life or he has some secret plan !

All I keep finding is Fish and Corn!



Plenty of rivers too - looks like there could be at least two fabulous cottage cheese cities around here! Not loads of hills but plenty of fog to bust to change that plan!

Some nice silver over on the land across the water. I am intrigued to find out more of this map - as the current landmass looks like a straight stretch of land but who knows where it ends.

Oh and Krill - I seem to have a Combat 1 promoted starting warrior (only just noticed now - that's how observant I am!) - thanks for that!

[Twinkletoes89]

Well turn 5 yielded nothing from moving my warrior, but this turn has given me enough to see to attempt my first two dotmaps for the (corn rich) land north of Pharsalus (naming theme not 100% yet).

Here is a bare overview first:



Some very nice land there indeed!

Now here are my two dotmaps for that area, red and blue.

[SIZE="2"]BLUE[/SIZE]



This is what I call the 'fair and square' dotmap. Two food resources for each of the cities. Both are on hills (Western City on a plains hill) for defensive bonus and there is no overlap.

The downsides are that they are quite far from the capital and each other - so reinforcing would be an issue. Neither are coastal - so i would have to ship a work boat up from the capital to work the fish at the Eastern City.

Overall they aren't too bad though!

[SIZE="2"]RED[/SIZE]



This is what I call the 'greedy monster' dotmap. The western city has all three corn resources in its bfc, plus plenty of riverside grasslands for cottaging or (perhaps better) farming for a GP farm. Settled early, that city could churn out an early great scientist with a quick library. It also has 12 forests to chop, plus 4 grass hills and one plains hill (I believe) so it isn't without production either. Chop out early library and watch it fly!

City two would be coastal so it could build up its own work boat - and can share the most eastern corn with the monster city for early growth once its borders pop. It is also only 5 tiles from the capital so 2 movers could defend them both when a road is built between the two.

Downsides are that monster city is more distant from the capital and on a grassland so it is harder to defend early on. There is overlap between the two cities of 3 tiles, but that isn't too bad considering the monster capabilities of one of them.

Personally I like red slightly more as a monster city like that won't come around very often. Though I have put them both out here for Whosit and Ky to have a look at and see what they think as I am open to debate on them!