PBEM25 Mapmaking and Lurking

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Archduke requested a re-roll. RNG spits back 1, he gets first alternate slate.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Randomly drawing names out of a hat yields Archduke as Player 1. I'll get the starts assigned to the appropriate players in-game and get the save set up tomorrow morning, then it's all on them.

[Sullla]

The only thing that I've noticed in the game thus far is that greenline picked a weak spot for his capital:




He chose to settle on the 4/0 marsh rice tile along the coast. That gave the capital a 3/1 center tile but removes the opportunity to farm that rice tile down the road which would turn it into a 5/0 tile. High food tiles are extremely rare in Civ6 as there's almost nothing that grants more than 3 food until reaching the lategame. Giving up that tile is especially bad since there are lots of high production tiles nearby that a rice farm would allow the capital to grow onto. Furthermore, moving onto the coast is a poor choice because water tiles are terrible in Civ6, with normal terrain having 1/0/1 yield and even improved crabs only being 1/0/5. You really, really do not want the capital's borders occupying so many of those weak tiles instead of far superior land tiles. Greenline has already put himself in a serious hole compared to the other players right from the start.

I also see several players going for scout-heavy openers which I've never particularly liked. I think some of them are being influenced by Multiplayer videos on YouTube, but those players use a modded version of the game as well as turning barbarians off and goody huts on. I guess we'll see if the barbarians punish any of these light military openers.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

My worry is that greenline has spawned right next to Archduke's Julius Caesar. Archduke is not going to go military-light, and Caesar's legions can farm a ton of experience and gold off barbarians. It's quite probable that within 50 turns or so Greenline will be facing an invasion of double-promoted legions.

[RefSteel]

The only thing that I've noticed in the game thus far is that greenline picked a weak spot for his capital

Even not knowing Civ6 very well, even the immediate tile yields don't bode well for the snowball with this move. I'm curious where you would plant the city in this case though! If freshwater isn't vital, settling in place is surely better, and I could see an argument for settling 1NW on the plains hill and working the deer for monster early production if settling on any water is unnecessary, but is it possible moving to freshwater could be worth skipping out on these? And if so, where would you plant? Is the wheat a weak enough resource (or does it do something even if you settle on it such) that it's worth planting on it?

(Ignoring the fact that TAD seems to be threatening to run roughshod over the world regardless and prove greenline massively underestimated Caesar.)

[Krill]

My worry is that greenline has spawned right next to Archduke's Julius Caesar. Archduke is not going to go military-light, and Caesar's legions can farm a ton of experience and gold off barbarians. It's quite probable that within 50 turns or so Greenline will be facing an invasion of double-promoted legions.

I have to win this one.

Ouch, greenline is not the right player to be in that firing line. Two games, two legion rushes.

I thought the same thing about the coastal city, but as a counter point, lack of coastal cities even on a pangaea map can be enough to lose a game. Still, I would not have settled on the rice.

I do think that greenline got unlucky with the lack of freshwater. I might have wandered several turns west, or settled in place but I would have hated the need to chop the wheat for an aqueduct. I'd have been tempted to risk moving 2NE and the potential desert.

[Sullla]

That's a good question RefSteel. Here's the starting terrain that greenline had:




I think the clear choice is setting on top of the wheat tile, not the rice tile. That saves the 4/0 rice tile and avoids grabbing any coastal tiles, picks up an excellent 2/2 jungle hill tile northeast of the wheat, and then has the following tiles in the second ring: 3/1 bananas tile, 2/3 deer tile, 1/3 plains forested hill tile, and triple 1/2 unforested plains hills tiles for future mining. That's a monster capital once it can grow up to size 8-10 and start working all those hill tiles, plus there might be even more goodies to the northeast that we can't see yet since greenline inexplicably hasn't scouted the area right next to his capital.

Really interested to see if TheArchduke can get the full snowball going with his extremely early settler purchase via his leader trait.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Everyone's doing such a nice job of reporting, and the game is still early enough that I can use our overall map here in the lurker thread to post a current state of affairs, based on the latest reporting from each player:



Woden bumped into a barb camp to the west of his capital and turned back a few tiles short of spotting what I think might be the only blasted natural wonder on the map (other than the Triangle in the deep ocean). I should have added one of those in the center and one in the East, but, oh well, everyone gets something. His scout northeast of his capital is near Pindicator's scout northwest of HIS, and who meets the CS up there first might come down to turn order. 

Yuris also was driven back by a barb camp just two tiles short of his desperately desired coast. There's also an unknown CS in the fog just northwest of his Cape Turnabout, too. He should meet Cahokia soon.

Pindicator's warrior & twin scout opener has done good coverage in the middle of the continent. He might meet all 4 of his neighboring city-states first. 

Greenline is out of date and has only the one warrior. He might still meet the CS north of him first.

Archduke was unlucky enough to scout in the only possible direction that led to no city-states, but the barb camp more than compensates (in fact, since the camps spawn away from cities those facts are probably related). His early 300 gold donation has led to an absurdly early second settler, and if he keeps farming camps that can snowball quickly. He might meet pin in the near future if he keeps scouting beyond the lake and pin keeps scouting beyond his. 

Overall, I think Woden's read of the situation and likely development of the game in his thread is probably most correct. Pindi's Ottomans in the center are a wild card, though.

[Jabah]

Archduke poster à picture with settler lenses and didn't notice or comment but he should see the présence à city straigh SE with à 4th ring Red unsettleable tile...
He might even meeting Pin before greenline for better or worse..

[Japper007]

I want to weigh in on the scout openers Sulla mentioned, have been playing a lot recently (especially openeners because half the Deity games end with you getting rushed down by 5 warriors...) :

Builder first:

A good option if you have three good tiles to start improving immediately. Three pastures, three mines or quarries. Or even just two of those and a farm for irrigation eureka (chopping marshes is very good, and sometimes you need it to unlock a good tile for your first district)

Scout first

Has been my preference lately. Even without huts you get a lot of era score from meeting other civs (as well as writing boost, which is a serious bottleneck to going straight Pottery-Writing-Currency), and CS firstmeets are very important: it's like an extra pop in your capital, and the critical Political Philo boost. Also Natural wonders for, again, Era Score and to boost Astro for Naval/Religious openers.

Warrior first:

My backup if my initial terrain sucks for scout (lots of forested/jungled hills). Very safe, but it gets you almost nothing except maybe Bronze Working boost. 

Slinger first:

Have soured on this a lot. Archery is a tech you delay, and by the time you pick it up it's only a turn anyway. Better to crank out three archers once you have Agoge and Archery. They just don't have the punching power to defend against warriors. And if you want to fight early, I've found Horsemen better than archers: more mobile.

Monument first:

Have seen PotatoMCWhiskey play this. Does get you a lot of early civics fast and really good if you have a stronger second ring (but then you should've moved your settler!). But you can do better with the boosts discounting than hardteching.