Any advice for Incan with horrid start location?

[joncnunn]

Multi-player [8 players], so restart isn't an option.

I appear to be stuck on a tiny landmass without fresh water.

The southern most section has plains, the northern section is tundra, a handful of grassland tiles at the extreme western edge of the landmass. There's a ridge of mountains, what I see beyond it is all tundra / tundra with forest on top.

Accel production is on.

[Solomwi]

Screenshot?

[Dominae]

Explore your island fully to ensure that you are indeed alone.

Only put cities on tiles that provide less than 2 Food. Do not be afraid to ICS a little.

Build Granaries in every city, unless your capital is decent and you can make a dash for the Pyramids.

Beeline to Map Making, both for Galleys to get off your accursed rock, and for Harbors to increase your Commerce to acceptable levels.

[joncnunn]

One Chican scout under production as first build. Starting scout reached the western tip of the island already and is heading east.

Captial was indeed founded on the starting plains tile no bonsus.
No forests around to chop.

A few scattered sugar bonus tiles in the plains, heaviest concentration near the capital. [Looks like 3 of them will be in CR of capital upon first cultural expansion.] Yeah, an accelerated production Pyramids might be doable there if either a goody hut with a settler is found or else once a second city is founded.

I'm thinking that the four seafaring civs are going to love this map.

So far, the only advantage I've gotten out of the expansiont traight is knowing I'm on an accused rock in 3900 BC instead of not finding out until 3500 BC.

The island is very far north and appears to have a SW to NE orientation.

Originally posted by Dominae
Explore your island fully to ensure that you are indeed alone.

Only put cities on tiles that provide less than 2 Food. Do not be afraid to ICS a little.

Build Granaries in every city, unless your capital is decent and you can make a dash for the Pyramids.

Beeline to Map Making, both for Galleys to get off your accursed rock, and for Harbors to increase your Commerce to acceptable levels.

[joncnunn]

That would technically a rules violation. [No screen shots allowed to be shared without Navigation]

Originally posted by Solomwi
Screenshot?

[punkbass2000]

Sounds like SVC MP!

[joncnunn]

I'm the one who hosted this game, I better not hear any complaints about starting locations from the other players.

It was an autogenerated map, size large, random barbs and random map settings.

If my portion of the world is any indication, the four players who picked a Seafaring civ are going to love this map.

The oddest thing about the picks were that no body picked a Militaristic nor Religious civ and also nobody picked a race with an offensive land unit UU. (2 Naval UUs, 4 Land Defensive UUs, 2 other UUs)

Originally posted by punkbass2000
Sounds like SVC MP!

[Theseus]

Sounds more like the start that UnO provided in his rant thread...

My prescriptions:

* ICS like crazy.

* Get to Curraughs ASAP.

* Depending on the location of resources (i.e., fish/whales), and also the lack of luxuries, you may want to get a few Temples built ASAP.

* Get to Harbors / Galleys ASAP.

* You'll need an offensive force... hard to advise, but if you think you may have horses, I'd lean in that direction to match your UU.

I disagree with Dominae re Granaries and the Pyramids... crap land does not lend to such, and the ROI for low-food-generating towns is not worth it. Build military instead, and go a-warmongering.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Theseus
I disagree with Dominae re Granaries and the Pyramids... crap land does not lend to such, and the ROI for low-food-generating towns is not worth it. Build military instead, and go a-warmongering.

Granaries and the Pyramids are only good when you have good land?!?

Assuming you do manage to grab the Pyramids (focus being the key), it is the one Wonder that can actually dig you out of such a hole (with the Great Library being a distant second). Consider: Legoland. Of course, if the island is so small that it can only accommodate a few cities, the Pyramids may not be a good investment Shield-wise.

As for Granaries, they provide the same ROI regardless of what kind of land you have: they cut the time it takes for your cities to grow by one half, from 20 to 10, 4 to 2, or whatever. Put another way, a 5fpt town makes up its 60 Shield investment faster by virtue of being a 5fpt town (compared to a 2fpt town), not by virtue of being a 5fpt-town-with-a-Granary. It is true that when you are Food-rich it is best to put Granaries in your high Food output cities, but this does not imply that when you have no Food bonuses you should avoid Granaries altogether. AU503: Pillage and Plunder (with the Incans) is an example of this.

Now, the plan of going to bonk some heads to get back in the game I have a tougher time disagreeing with. The main reason I would be reticent to do such a thing is that on a Pangea map I am not very confident that an IC invasion would work. By the time I get Map Making (remember, joncnunn's start has low Commerce), enough Galleys and troops, and actually reach another island, I might find that I am outmatched by an economically superior opponent. There's also the possibility that I cannot get off my rock before Astronomy, which would make my military buildup a bit premature. I guess it all depends on how big the island is: if you can grow reasonably well (say, 8-12 cities), I would probably go the economic route and hope for the best; with anything fewer than that, I would be more desperate and do what Theseus suggests.

Edit: By the way, while Uno's game may sound similar superficially, it's not entirely clear that joncnunn's game calls for the same courses of action. First, Uno's game is SP, where it is much easier to mount an IC invasion against an unsuspecting and poorly defended opponent. Second, in Uno's game the home island had so many Plains but no fresh water that it was clear that economic buildup was not an option. Third, in Uno's game, a crossing to another larger continent was available and immediately discernable, but in joncnunn's game it is possible that the home island is quite isolated.

[joncnunn]

I think it's also important to note that this MP game like most of them have accelerated production on. Pyraimds is half price. (I think I'd also win any "ties" in wonder building due to being in the first player spot.)
Growth is also twince as fast, athough until mapmaking, most city sites are going to be stuck at size 2.

Update: My Chican Scout completed this past turn and is now exploring along the inital hill range in the southern part of the landmass heading east. The normal scout got back from the western extreme of the map (not very far at all) and is exploring along the northern part of the landmass leading east. Landmass appears to be getting a bigger north-south extent.

Yes, under an ICS pattern [displacing as needed to not plant on a 2 food tile], there is a minimum of 8 cities possible. Shields will be at much more of a premimum than commerce after Harbors.

Still no luxaries nor goody huts.
Strategic resource probabilities:

Horses : Medium-Low
Iron : Medium
Saltpeter: Low
Coal : Medium-Low
Rubber : Low
Oil : Very High
Alluminum: Low
Uranium: Low

I should know more the next time the turn gets to me; this round is going much faster than the last two rounds; I guess the other players are taking vacations where they still have internet access.

[punkbass2000]

Haven't had time read everything, but I see some good thoughts. Just here to make sure someone has mentioned 'Feudalism'.

[joncnunn]

Update: 2 More plains + sugar sources discovered (coastal). Unfortunately the coast & mountains combine to where to fully use either tile, the other's sugar food bonus gets killed.

More tundra / tundra-forest discovered.

The southern coast is drifting north at an equal rate the norther coast is drifiting north now.

Well, Fedualism only makes sense in combination with an a large army. A large army requires that I be able to reach an opponent to fight, which is still very much up in the air.

Now up to 12+ city sites using ICS, this includes some non-coastal sites that will be permeantly stuck at size 2. Actually make that 3 when I leave Despotism.

[joncnunn]

Lucked out and got a SGL. Rushing the Pyramids.

[punkbass2000]

Beautiful.

[joncnunn]

I'm going to have to change the description of the land mass:

Was: Tiny landmass with no fresh water, over half tundra. No players sharing it.

Now: Small landmass, 1 fresh water lake tile surrounded by tundra / hills, 80%+ tundra / forest on top of tundra. No players sharing this landmass. 20+ cities possible using ICS