Trainee captain yuris125 on the nautical skills test

[yuris125]

The more I look at the dotmap, the more I want to go for the Green dot before Magenta

* Magenta has more food thanks to the wheat. But we can't take advantage of it before Slavery, which is still many turns away
* I think Magenta should be moved 1SE, off the plains hill, which means it will only be getting 2hpt until we discover Mining
* Green will be getting 4hpt when we improve the cow, so it has much more early productive potential, and will be getting better Exp/Ind bonuses
* Green can work 2 flood plains for food, which are decent even unimproved
* These flood plains will become even better when we discover Pottery and build cottages, and I want Pottery before Mining, to get the Terraces earlier

Thoughts?

[SevenSpirits]

Good idea.

Expanding to a single plains cow is odd to say the least, but I suppose it's the best we've got here. The best part is that that city can work the FP farm in the two turns before the pasture completes, and thus grow in four.

Cuzco can build a worker after the settler finishes, then grow on a galley. Alternately it can immediately grow on a workboat. That might be better, it doesn't look like there's much for a second worker to do. Exploration is good, and exploration that can turn into high food tiles is adorable.

[yuris125]

Agree with a workboat before the 2nd Worker. We will need more Workers after discovering Pottery and Mining, but right now scouting the surrounding islands is more important

[yuris125]

The game has been moving very fast, and we're at T17 already

The Settler is out, and will found the 2nd city in 2 turns. I'm building a Workboat, which will be done in 5 turns, at the same turn we discover Sailing. I think we should follow up with a Galley, we don't need more Workers or Settlers just yet - I would go Worker/Settler/Worker after Galley

Techwise, I'm tempted to quickly get Hunting before going for Pottery. It's cheap, we can get it in 4 turns, and those furs next to the 2nd city are 1/1/4 improved. Extra commerce will be very helpful for early research

Exploration news:



I did find seafood in the south, so the spot 1N of the deer could indeed be used as a GP farm. With Lighthouse, it will be able to work 5 specialists at size 8; it has 3 choppable forests, which should be enough to complete National Epic if we build a Forge and find marble (3 post-Math chops = 60h, bonus of 100% marble + 25% Forge + 25% OR=150%, gives us 150 hammers of 167 required for NE)

[yuris125]

OK, we decided not to go for Hunting. 1/1/4 tile is not that great, and production is more important than commerce at the moment

This is how things look at T20



Tiwanaku will stay at size 2, working cows and the FP farm, and building Workers and Settlers. Cuzco, which has a 0/3/0 forested plains hill, can produce 7hpt, so it will be a production centre for now, if you can call it that It will finish a Workboat, to be done at the end of next turn, at the same time Sailing hits. Then Cuzco will build a Galley to expand to neighbouring islands, and we will research Wheel/Pottery before finally going for Mining and BW

[yuris125]

T26

Not much happening, things are going according to the plan. Here is the latest map, also showing where my plan for the next city



The spot in the middle of the island is more logical, but this one has exactly the same tiles, and preserves the forest

A Settler and a Galley will be completed in 3 turns. Then I'm going to build Workers in both cities. In 5 turns we will discover Pottery, followed by Mining and BW, and 1 Worker for 3 cities won't be sufficient at all

[timski]

A lurker observation on your [first] dot-map, if I may:

On smallish-island maps, hills are at a premium. Consequently settling upon a hill - normally a very strong strategy in multi-player games - can be a costly long-term production trade-off. This is especially true from what I see of your map, since your options for Slavery-based production aren't exactly great.

(I wrote a few notes on this in the past - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=376093 - my views have changed a little since, especially playing BTS, but the reference might be useful.)

[yuris125]

Thanks for the advice! I completely agree; in the comments to the dotmap, I suggested to move Magenta 1SE and Orange 1E, both moves off the hill. And that's what I'm going to do

[yuris125]

T30



Settler in position to found the 3rd city next turn. Worker ready to farm the wheat. Pottery in at the end of this turn

The Workboat is currently exploring nearby islands for future city spots, but in a few turns I'm going to send it west to try to find other civs, and make an attempt at circumnav. I'll have another Workboat out of Tiwanaku soon to explore the east; the Galley will explore the south, but I'll try to keep it close by, in case it's needed

There are no good offshore spots visible so far. We will want to eventually settle the grassland cow and the spices (not marked on the screen, they're 3N of the grassland cow), but not right away. As things stand, I think the next city should be on the main island, 1S of the wheat

I'm surprised with how few seafood we found so far, but oh well

[yuris125]

T33

Mining in at EOT, BW will take 6 turns, including 1t collecting gold. Can speed up as cottages come up

Selected workboats in both cities. The one in Tiwanaku was started to let it grow to 2 before switching to Settler/Worker, and its hammers were going to start decaying. And we need an explorer in the east in any case. The one in Cuzco will let it grow to 4, and net the clams at Machu Picchu, the 3rd city

After WB, Tiwanaku will start working on Settler for the spot S on the wheat. Not sure about Cuzco yet, I'd say Terrace. BW is close, and we need to get Terraces online for whipping