The (Second) MGE Sailing Succession game

[Old n Slow]

Yes, We'll want Map -- if for nothing else, to squeeze out a boat & see if we have a few more specials to work with.

But I'm guessing that the ai will have map so we can "trade" for it via MPE.

Of course we might hit Nav by the time we could complete our second wonder.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Here's the map, post-Jrabbit.

edit: here's why I'm not playing yet - I can remember the general direction of the next landmass.

[-Jrabbit]

20 Boring Turns

It's 1000 BC and we are Hopeless. In desperation, a new tyrant is decreed -- the Evil Bunny.

Our lone city of Troy is a robust Size 4, boasting 3 warriors and a treasury of 82 GP. Currently at +2 GP/turn, techs at 15 turns. The Evil Bunny decides to save a couple turns in the building of our WoW by moving a worker into the forest. Rate = 20 turns.

Tant pis.

975 AD
950 AD
925 AD
900 AD -- We discover Map Making. Select from the following -- CereBurial (temples, pre-Monarchy), Horses, Masonry, Pottery (HG), Trade, WarCode, Writing (dips, pre-Republic).
Wanting dips and settlers on our boat, we foolishly choose Writing.
875 BC
850 BC
825 BC -- French start Pyramids
800 BC -- Carthaginians complete the Colossus of Carthage. Mongols switch to Lighthouse.
775 BC
750 BC -- Troy reaches Size 5. Elvis hired. Lighthouse purchased for last 24 GP.
--Chinese build Pyramids of Shanghai; French abandon their project.
--Machiavelli declares us to be Hopeless in the scientific arena.
725 BC -- Lighthouse completed. Mongols switch to Marco Polo.
--Trireme started. Tech rate = 18 turns.
--No growth possible with required Elvis. Should have taken CereBury.
700 BC -- Increment purchased. Carths start on Sun Tzu.
675 BC -- Another increment toward boat. Mongols start on Oracle.
650 BC -- Zulus start Hanging Gardens.
625 BC -- Chinese start Hanging Gardens.
600 BC
575 BC -- Trireme completed; explores immediate area. Sorry -- no sea specials. Settler started.
550 BC -- Trireme quasi-randomly decides to head west.
525 BC -- Increment purchased.
500 BC -- Chinese abndon Hanging Gardens project.
--The Evil Bunny retires.

Situation -- We are a couple turns away from Writing. Strongly recommend the next tyrant correct my mistake and grab Cermonial Burial next. We need a Temple!!

My plan was to send the empty trireme north for a turn or two, then head back home to pick up a Settler (1/2 done now) and a diplomat.

Let the robust revisionism begin...

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Lots of good issues to address:

If we're size 5, should we Xin? Once the Settler is built, we drop to size 4 and pay support. If we don't find land soon, I suggest we Xin for science... hopefully to get to Monarchy faster.

It would be nice to have some better defenders in case the (non barb) AIs show up.

I agree with Jrabbit's self-RCC - CerBur was probably the better call, techwise.

Since someone else has already started HG, I don't think we can get it. We probably can't get any more wonders for a while, if we're busy building boats and Settlers. (and we definitely need those... hopefully we can send boats out with Settlers on them, then rehome the boats as soon as new cities are founded?)

[duke o' york]

Good decision, whoever it was, to ignore the temptation of foresting for a 4-special!
Now things are a lot more interesting...
I forgot about the Roboticky mouse institute... good job I'm not playing, with such a firm grasp of the rules of this game.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Good decision, whoever it was, to ignore the temptation of foresting for a 4-special!
Now things are a lot more interesting...
I forgot about the Roboticky mouse institute... good job I'm not playing, with such a firm grasp of the rules of this game.

I suppose the grassland could be a hidden special, assuming the whale is the tail end of a special patten NW of us.... but we probably won't be able to tell for sure.

Just noticed Jrabbit's comment that there's no growth possible with the elvis... so Xinning is probably impossible

Someone get us to Monarchy please... or even Republic

[-Jrabbit]

Correct. I wanted to do some xinning, but the need for an Elvis prevented that -- we are either unhappy at +2 food, or not growing at all with an Elvis. With only 2 food in the box, it just can't be done until we have a temple.

Thus, I went for the Settler as our next build.

No need for better defenders until we have more than one city.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

One city is safe from barbs, but not from AI civs.

I hope we can find Horseback Riding in a hut - just in case the Zulu battle fleet is bearing down on us.

[Bloody Monk]

One of my favorite maxims goes, "Pre-plans are best done before beginning." It is so easy to get lost in the moment.

We need a new gov't and we need to send multiple units to explore. That means Monarchy. Writing is a seductive distraction from the main path. (Even if Republic were chosen, a temple would be necessary.) Please, doesn't someone want to be King??

That said, "it" has only cost us a little time but we are going to be lagging a long while, I think. And the "laggingmorph" has performed ample self flagellation. So let's be proud of our diplomats and move on.

From here, I recommend building multiple settlers; changing the search to a spiral to open the map around Troy in all directions, and ICS where possible to get more arrows. Finding the closest landfall around Troy will keep the internal lines of communication shorter. Eventually, we will hit upon a larger landmass to where we can move.

Monk (Noticing there have been many intervening posts. Typing is slow going...sorry)

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk


Monk (Noticing there have been many intervening posts. Typing is slow going...sorry)

No need to apologize... your suggestion of a spiral search pattern is good advice, and hadn't been suggested yet. I concur about the multiple Settlers. I'm tempted to build on the NW corner of the island, just so we have a place to support units from. At size 4 (which we'll be once the Settler is built), we can support 4 units for free. At that point, we'll have 5 units in place. Building more boats/Settlers will be hard to do... and there is food consumption to consider too. With a second city, deliberately kept fairly small, we could rehome some of the garrison in Troy and thereby support more exploring boats.

Going to Monarchy would reduce free support to 3, but we'd have extra food from the Grass tile and an extra shield from the whale, so it's still worth it, obviously.

I'm glad this game is generating such spirited debate

[-Jrabbit]

Personally, I'd like to see us go Rep for long enough to harvest a few settlers and get Troy to size 8. That, and the lack of support needed for exploring dips, is what swayed me away from CereBury.

Considering the lack of land, the necessity of away units, and the ruleset -- Not the best analysis.

So I guess we need to go CerBur, Monarchy. Then we need to find land and get Trade. Once we get into multi-continent trading, we'll be back in the tech race in fairly short order.

[Scouse Gits]

?Spiral Search? - good in theory - but once the immediate environs has been mapped - I'm not expecting much here - then I would advocate choosing a direction and sailing there ...

Stu

[Bloody Monk]

@Stu

Agreed. Once 10-15 clicks are opened around Troy. No sense in looking for paradise 100 clicks away before the close-in area is revealed. And hopefully, something will turn up and provide a second boat.

Monk

[Old n Slow]

Spirited discussion indeed -- I think I missed an entire page when I posted my Monday morning comment (and now it seems sooooo Monday Morning!)

Note that we can push for two extra tiny cities on our huge continent -- and boat (s) can make a set of spiraling actions -- not only for empty land but also for non-barb threats.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Old n Slow

Note that we can push for two extra tiny cities on our huge continent -- and boat (s) can make a set of spiraling actions -- not only for empty land but also for non-barb threats.

I like the idea of the 2 extra cities a lot - once we have Horse Riding (making them defensible) we should do that. IMO. Right now, the prospect of barb Archers makes extra cities risky.