[PB59] Lazteuq worries for the endangered lurker species

[Lazteuq]

It's great to have you guys posting in my thread! I'll definitely do species of some sort for city names.

I haven't reported much lately, because nothing very interesting has happened. It's turn 23 now. The known world hasn't grown a lot, because I've been really careful about keeping the scout alive. So far, I like this map.

I met GKC (ORG/IMP of the Mongols) a while ago, his scout approached from the Northwest. So until I get better intel, I'll assume GKC is to the north of that banana chokepoint. GKC and I did interact a little bit in PB51...Maybe I should have attacked him back then, but I kept our border peaceful and attacked Superdeath instead. I wonder how that shaped his perception of me. I think GKC is a better player than me by a significant margin. Hopefully some early Aggressive axes/spears will deter him from settling too close to me.
Last turn I met Charriu's (SPI/IND of Greece) scout to the southeast. Maybe we're also connected by a narrow peninsula. I'm not sure what to think of Charriu's gameplay. Again, he's probably more skilled than me, but PB52 is all I know, and I didn't follow that very closely.

I've played a couple games with Close to Home in singleplayer, and I really like Spiritual+Serfdom. In fact, Serfdom can be a bigger economic boost than Currency if you have a lot of farms. I might just neglect currency this game and go straight to Monarchy! Also, easy access to Caste+Pacifism can make Spiritual a temporary budget version of Philosophical.

[Lazteuq]

I've met Ramk, his scout approached from the northwest, just like GKC's. I'm going to assume that GKC, Charriu, and Ramk are my three close neighbors. The shape of the land makes me think 3-4 neighbors is reasonable, and then maybe another eastern neighbor across the sea.

I think I'll settle directly west, maybe 1 tile south of the gems. Maybe on top of the gems, actually...I'm debating that. Settling on top of the gems means I can delay Iron Working for much longer, and I'll get instant access to the gems, fueling early whipping. Of course it means I lose about 5 commerce on that tile forever. Also, settling on the gems means I'd have to expand borders to reach the wheat. I'm really unsure about this decision. Lurker question: Where would you settle if you wanted to grab those gems, gold, wheat, and corn? Or would you want to split those resources between multiple cities?

I'm pretty sure I can afford to delay AH, the capitol's sheep isn't absolutely critical. Getting to Pottery for granaries might be better. Or maybe go for Mysticism to get monuments. I think Wheel->Pottery is the best option. It seems crazy to have sheep in the capitol BFC and not research AH, but granaries are so important!

Finding out where copper is might change my settling decision, but not necessarily. This doesn't feel as cramped as the PB56 map: I think I can afford to grab copper with the 3rd city, not 2nd.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 33:

Vaquita (City 2) is settled and I renamed the capitol to Dugong: The theme shall be endangered marine animals that I haven't heard of before! I'll try to keep the city names short, and avoid multi-word names.
I decided to settle 1S of the gems, mostly because I want to have corn and wheat in the first ring. It sucks to not get the gems early, but I think 2nd city growth is more important. I'll be delaying Mysticism until probably after Wheel-Pottery-AH, so I won't be reaching out to that gold tile for a while. Not great, but I have to make sacrifices with the early tech pace being slow.

Copper showed up in a pretty good spot. I think the 3rd city will go northeast, claiming copper and fish, as well sharing wheat with the capitol. Now that the first settler is done, I've built two warriors to start fogbusting and watching the chokepoints.
I realize that 4->2 pop whipping is only about a 1.1 hammers:food ratio until I have a granary. The bigger advantage of whipping right now is speed, not efficiency. So I still do think it makes sense to whip the next settler ASAP, which should be Turn 39. So the 3rd city can be settled on Turn 42. The overflow goes into the workboat for the fish.
Since Vaquita can work the ivory, I decided to put those 4 foodhammers toward a worker, instead of growing off the 3food corn. Then Dugong works the sheep, so I'm not using any unimproved tiles. All these riverside tiles will help my beaker rate significantly. Delaying Vaquita's growth doesn't feel like a great idea, but I think the earlier second worker will help. I'd like to start chopping ASAP, just as soon as those corn and wheat are farmed.

I think I'm decently lucky with neighbors: They are all probably more skilled than me, but at least none of them are insanely good. This is certainly better than getting crunched between CRE/IMP Mackoti and CRE/FIN Noble in PB56.
Looking at the graphs, I think GKC just built his second city a few turns ago without whipping (He is IMP).
Charriu adopted slavery a few turns ago, but that's all I know.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 36. I've decided to whip another worker in Dugong next turn. Then I'll finish the workboat and probably get a settler with chops, maybe not a whip at all. It's still going to be a while before I have any Granaries. I have a decent number of forests, and I think it's better to use them all now instead of trying to save them until after Mathematics.
I've been considering building an early axeman and sending him out to cause trouble. Even just scaring an opponent and messing up their micro might be worthwhile. Problem is, it would take about 10 turns for him to reach an opponent. Chariots are much better for that kind of harassment.

I think I might tech Masonry and go for stone-boosted Pyramids failgold as a way to reach Monarchy early. 1hammer->2gold is pretty good. I guess there's also Great Wall failgold. In a game with 25 players, someone will build it....right?
I'm curious what the islands to the east are like. I bet there's a good Moai spot.

[Lewwyn]

If you did send an axe off, who would be the one you would want to harass?

[Lazteuq]

Thats a good question:
I met GKC first, so he's probably closest. He's also probably the most militarily dangerous though.
Charriu is Industrious, so I expect him to try for a early wonder, or at least try for failgold. If I can catch him while he's vulnerable, pouring hammers into a Stonehenge or Oracle or Pyramids instead of units, that would be great.
Realistically, I'll harass whoever's city I find first. But Charriu is probably the best target. In terms of the players, I think all three are decently militaristic, but I don't know any more than that.

It's turn 38.
The best contested land is probably that floodplains valley to the west. I think my 4th city will stake out part of it, but I'm wary to settle there in fear of a wandering chariot.
Pottery is 9ish turns away. I'm putting the overflow from that whipped second worker into a settler. Then I'll regrow the capitol while building the workboat. Ideally I time settling the city with netting the fish.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 42, with a big surprise: That floodplain area is a peninsula! I have more good land than I thought. So far, I like this map, Lewwyn.

I haven't lost any units to barbarians, they seem pretty rare actually, probably because other people's scouts have been fogbusting for me.
The workboat is done, he's going to explore for a couple turns before I settle city 3.
I spent a couple turns building a road on the jungle gems, which will be helpful later, and also creates a trade route between cities. Not sure if that was worth delaying the corn farm by 3 turns or not.
I want to get the capitol granary fast without whipping it, so I have a plan to 2pop whip the settler at max overflow and chop.

Pottery is in 3 turns. Not sure what next. I might continue to ignore AH and get Mysticism.
I'm not reporting a whole lot this game partly because I know the lurkers have such an abundance of reading material already. I do plan to report more in the future though, once there's some serious contact with other players.

[Lewwyn]

Turn 42, with a big surprise: That floodplain area is a peninsula! I have more good land than I thought. So far, I like this map, Lewwyn.

Great! I'm happy you're enjoying yourself

[klops]

contested floodplains... maybe I could take a snippet... but...

What!?
IT'S ALL MINE!!! My precious!

[Lazteuq]

Yeeeeeesssssssssss...........I neeeeds it.
You know where cities 4 and 5 are going!
Selfish concerns aside, I think the shape of the land is good and natural. I think jungle chokepoints are a good way to separate players on an otherwise pretty small map.
I just realized the capitol borders will expand to cover the copper in only 8 more turns. That means I could get copper on ~T55 without needing to settle a city for it. I already invested in that workboat for the fish though, so I think I'll settle it anyway.