Our Starting Location!!

[Hercules]

NAP= Non aggression pact.

[Dinner]

Duh. OK, got it. Thanks.

[Dinner]

BTW those are some real interesting saved games, I don't think I could play as well as that. It looks like we've narrowed our city choices down to one of two locations. What do people want to do so we can compare fairly between the two? Where and when we found our first city seems like one of the biggest decisions in the whole game.

[Calanthian]

We decided to play on until T75 and then decide for a starting city.

Then we can finetune the chosen scenario.

[OzzyKP]

I'd love to see you guys tackle the other person's spot too. Otherwise we don't truly know if we are assessing the strength of the starting position or the strength of the player (i.e. all the decisions made after the capitol is founded).

[mzprox]

i've replayed (similary ) the SIP start. I built the library in t43, at turn 50 i had bigger pop, but was behind in worker improvements and a little bit in science. all in all very similar.

about the t75 comparsion. it's not fair to the warrior start because it has already outgrown the starting area, but i did not built the map aroud the starting place, so it's awfully empty. it's quite impossible that we start without luxury and in my last gameplay my third settler is ready in t49, so my 4th city would onnect a luxury, allowing me to start slaving.

[Calanthian]

That's ok, but I'd love to see all others challenging us too

The main difference between the two play throughs is early tech & growth ("in place") vs. early prod & growth ("warrior start").

[Calanthian]

MZ can we talk online in Gods & Heroes, then we can discuss how to come to a decision..

The SIP reaps it's results later, so I agree with you that it's hard to compare.

[mzprox]

ok

[Calanthian]

* Perhaps we could place one single, reachable, happiness resource outside the core area
* And I expect there will be one Copper resource within the core area
So I propose to add these to the map (for comparison reasons only) and then do one other play through..

[Calanthian]

I played mzprox's scenario through, step-by-step and..

I am completely convinced this is the way to go. Very elegant gameplay, everything falls into place, just in time.
Mz, I wouldn't change a single thing until T50, except I would replace the second build ( a warrior ) for a scout.
(and yes I know your position on it)


This is the step-by-step walkthrough Mz sent me. Play it and learn


techs: Hunting-AH-pottery-mining-BW
(t47)-writing

build order:
first city: worker-war-war-settler -worker- settler-worker--worker or settler

worker turns: farm corn
1 turn spent farming banana (cancel)
move to deer and build camp
move to forest 1 SE cow
pasture cow
build road 1 sw cow
build road on corn (finish it before moving settler to the hill)
continue farm on banana (second worker will help finishing it)
then cottage spam with the two workers working together
(first the grasland next to second city, then the floodplains)

important notes: just before the camp gets ready on deer the city works the +3 food tile instead of deer for exactly two turns. at pop 3 the city
must work on the +3 food tile and not on the cow. Benchmark: city grows to pop4 with no food overflow, warrior gets ready in the same turn with 2 hammers overflow. start building settlers. building settler at pop3 is a bit better in science, but behind in producion, so i prefer the pop4 settler.

[mzprox]

Thanks, Cal. I can be convinced to build a scout after the worker, we can put it up on a vote and see what other thinks. I think we agree that the first warrior stays at home in case someone would directly send his warrior to our direction. we can still use it to go around our borders a bit.

[Dinner]

It sounds like we have our city location and a good idea of what our first few moves should be.

[Ben Kenobi]

If the map is 80 x 100, I get first contact at 6 squares from the start position, assuming equal distribution. So, yeah, we'll be getting early contact.

[Ben Kenobi]

I agree with MX Prox and his save. Wow. It's amazing what you can do when you know what you are doing.