AU501 - DAR1: 4000BC-2150BC

[Dominae]

This is the DAR ("During Action Report") thread for the first 40 turns of AU501 - The Power of Seafaring.

Use this space to discuss early-game moves, and plans for the future. For instance, where did you found your capital, and why? Since this report only spans 40 turns, please provide as many details as you can remember.

[Theseus]

WOOHOO!!

[nbarclay]

I went into the game planning to follow the last plan I posted in the teaser thread. However, two things happened to change my mind.

(1) I lucked out and got a free settler from the initial hut. (It's not quite all luck; I was trying to boost my chances of that happening when I decided to build a worker first instead of a warrior first in my capital, thereby eliminating barbs as a possibility from the hut.) The settler looked down and saw two game forest tiles, so he decided that that would be a perfect place to build a city. With a second, high-production city, I decided to build some warriors there (two MPs and two explorers) and build a granary in the capital ASAP after my initial worker.

(2) In my excitement over the free settler, I botched the capital's growth when it grew to size 2 for the second time. (The first time it grew, it produced a worker the same turn.) That left me working a forest on a turn I should have been working the fish, which cost me a turn on growth. Simce my second worker had just finished mining a grassland with shield (if I remember the timing correctly), I worked the mined grassland with shield for three turns to balance out the food situation (albeit at the expense of commerce for research) before switching to the fish.

The end result was that with my forest chop one more 1-turn shift from fish to forest (to speed up my granary and slow down the capital's growth), my granary completed in 3900 BC with the capital a turn away from growing to size 4.

In 2590 BC, I lost the first settler out of my capital when he ran up against a barbarian camp (the first barbarians I encountered in the game). I should have diverted my MP warrior from the capital to serve as an escort! Adrianople completed a worker after its four warriors and started a granary.

2350 BC: Caeserea is founded on the gold hill with the goal of giving research a boost.

2310 BC: Nicaea is founded and starts work on the first Byzantine curraugh.

As of 2150 BC, my Byzantines have four cities and are a turn away from founding a fifth. Adrianople has just completed a granary and is slated to serve as a second city oriented toward building settlers and workers (after chopping and irrigating the game forests).

[Smellincoffee]

This is my first try at one of these, so bear with me.

------------------------

I decided to found Constantinope on the start, sending the worker to irrigate the grassland SE of town-- stretching toward the cow. My first build was a worker, and the two of them improved the town some. I forgot to replace the first irrigation with mining, though.

The hut didn't give me a free settler-- but I did get a tech, same for the hut in the marsh. (Warrior code and ceremonial burial) I just saw a light blue civ, and my first curragh is moving towardit. I discovered that I was on an island in 2470. This picture was taken before I decided to switch Con. and Adrian's builds-- to a settler and worker, respectivly. I've been following the Philosophy beeline in tech.

I can't get the bloody picture to upload onto the server, so I'll just use an MSN Community.

URL: (If image doesn't work, which happens with MSN Groups)

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VADbAsAZll!pEACBkGAEMAxPK0uZ2RXWRewN3cxKAz*uJur7piDoUV5pfUYeQmgaT3A8k60QoBdy*i1Dzq6iWc24hNFuKt!uIAyjlWsJctjiXKVaw8zo5wLJnPa011zU/sc501dar1.jpg?dc=4675456854234407906

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Smellincoffee
I can't get the bloody picture to upload onto the server, so I'll just use an MSN Community.

You can just attach an image file to your post and the forum will display it for you. Just make sure the file is under the maximum size (both in bytes and in pixels).


Dominae

[vmxa1]

Smellincoffee you do not have to up load pix. Make them 800 res jpegs and you can attach them. Use the broswe button below the reply window to point to it.

[ducki]

First, let me apologize for the terseness, but these were the notes I took while playing so that I didn't forget to do anything or leave anything out of my report. I'd rewrite it, but I think it fairly clearly highlights the transformation you lunatics have inflicted upon me as a player.

I accidentally played until 1990BC and I made contact with 2 AIs in 2470BC, so if you don't want to know about those or in which directions they lie, don't read this yet. I blacked out the minimap in my screenshot, though, and cropped as well as I could. Here goes the MM madness that is my new playstyle.

4000BC - Found. Start Worker instead of Warrior. Really don't want barbs next to capitol on turn 10 and rarely seem to get anything but barbs on Emperor.
Turn 1. Work Fish
Turn 2. Work BG
Turn 3. Work Fish
Turn 4. Work BG
Turn 5. (3800BC?)Work Fish - synced up now on food and shields to grow and finish in 4.
(The MM started early here. This is silly already! )

3650BC - Finished Worker, completed Road+Irrigation of Grassland SE of Duckstantinople. Begin Barracks(granary placeholder).
Worker1 to Cow. Worker2 to BG NE(7) of Duckstantinople.
3550BC - Worker1 Irrigate Cow. Worker2 mine BG. Hut pops a settler. Too bad I don't know where to send him, though there looks to be good hunting(2 game) South of the Volcano. Whee!

3350BC - After 20minutes of thinking - honestly, 20 minutes, just about which direction to send the hut-settler I moved south by two, then saw coast and moved east to be coastal but still have the two game in range. Luckily, that puts a whale within border-expansion range. Nice spot. Couldn't have planned it better if I'd explored, but I'll need much tighter spacing from here on out. At least I've got a barracks-military-navy town up that might even be wonder-worthy later on. Pottery is two turns away.
Start on warrior - wish I could do a curragh, but I'm going to need at least one garrison in Duckstantinople and at least 1 explorer to find city sites before I have settlers exploring for themselves(eek!).

3300BC - Gah! Volcano is now Active! Argh!
Pottery comes in. Switch to Granary. MM citizen from Cow to Mined BG. Still grow in 1 but finish Granary in 16 rather than 24.
Set research to Writing 100%, done in 48turns. Hoping to hit Mapmaking first and shoot for the Lighthouse(hey, this IS the Power of Seafaring, right?)

Sidenote: I don't even have a pump up yet and I did more MM so far than I ever did before the 'poly folks explained how to MM a pump. I think I'm going to be sick.

3250BC - Duckst. grows to 2, must go 20% lux, killing Writing back to 50 turns. It'll come back, I know, but it still hurts psychologically.
Currently at +4fpt and +4spt. Granary in 11. Time to grab an axe.

3200BC - Worker 1 finishing road on irrig. cow. Go east by 1 to chop and start road towards Adrian.
Tried MM Citizen in Adrian from game to coast - adds 1 happy-commerce. No change in beakers. Now I've got the MM bug. Gaaaahhh!!!!
Finished Warrior, send to Duckst. Start another. Must get to Curragh SOON!

Blech. Volcano erupts. Anyone got a cork? Odd. No damage. Whew!

3000BC - Duckst. grows to 3. Lux to 40%. /sigh. Strike that - MM Laborer to Lake Icthor from BG and either the extra food or extra commerce allows lux down to 30%. Writing in 36. Darnit Dominae, see what you people have done to me?!? I actually got a warm fuzzy feeling when I switched that laborer and her ugly face turned bright and shiny! Pthphptphtpt!
Granary in 6, but the forest will cut that in half.
MM Adrian. laborer from Game forest to Sea, this time I get a beaker out of it and still finish a warrior next turn. Wheee!

I'm not even on the Top 8 list of Civs Fated to be Destroyed by Ducks. Not really all that surprising.

2950BC - Warrior finishes, start Curragh. Send warrior to Duckst. pray for peaceful neighbors. Chop done, granary in 2. Start road to connect Adrian. Start new settlement plan. Should probably do something like a dot-map, ala CFC Succession Games, but it would be cooler if I could just "landmark" or name tiles in-game.

Debating whether to just road to Adrian or Chop-then-Road my way there. Wishing I'd explored earlier, but glad I got a hut-settler.
Starting to think I'm alone on this rock. Curragh in 5, will soon find out.

Garrison reaches Duckst. - tweak sliders - lux 20, science 80. writing in 26(temporarily, I'm sure)

2900BC - Granary complete(and full). Pop: 3 with 5 stored food. I'm sure I should remember something about that - I know Dom said something about 4 and-a-half pop and 6-and-a-half pop somewhere, but I think it went over my head. Damn. Start Warrior, done in 3. Take break to try to remember why half-pop was important.

2850BC - Change in plan - Warrior 2 going exploring. Will slow down Writing due to lux and shrinking econ, but must know more about homeland.
Have decided that half-pop thing was for Granary completion so that it would already be half-filled. Or something. Dunno for sure.

2800BC - Warrior2 went SW and hit coast very quickly. Will have to really pack the towns in, it looks like.
Duckst. hit size 4. Postpone road to Adrian - must get Grassland mined asap for pump to work, IIRC. It's gonna be screwy for the first settler, maybe two, I think. Gah!

2750BC - Warrior3 done in Duckst. Size4 grow in 1. Start Warrior3 and plan to eat some wasted food. Writing in 25. Yeah, right.

2710BC - Curragh complete, time to go 'splorin'!
Begin Curragh2.
Curragh goes east one, sees some daylight across the sea, and plans to pop into sea and back out(We're seafaring, we get that extra move) but Sea eats two moves now, so I was afraid I might be tempted to reload due to failure to remember the new rules, but we survive and near the borders of another civ across the sea. Also, our exploring Warrior2 has spotted a border to our Southwest across(I hope) a sea. Oh yeah, found some spice or incense.

2630BC - Warrior4 headed north last turn and now there's a barb coming down. Dang. (Later killed barb, got promoted, cleared camp and used the 25g to keep deficit-spending.)

Also figured out what's been eating me about the map - it's so hard to do my usual CxxC spacing without either wasting bonuses(BG, tobacco) or losing out on either coastalness or fresh water. Nice work Dominae, this one's making me think a lot more than I normally do.

2590BC - Stupid AI. Settle closer to the coast so I can meet you! Grr!

2470BC - Finally! Contact! Tokie seems annoyed and we just met! I haven't even shown him my pointy stick yet! Let's hope I have something worth trading. Should wait till Curragh1 finds out who's over to the east, though, for better prices. Ah, there's Mursillis! He and Tokie know Warrior Code and Ceremonial Burial, Tokie knows the Wheel and Mursilis knows Alphabet. Unfortunately, Tokie won't part with the Wheel and I fear losing what little trade-power I have now. Should I take CB or WC and a little cash or wait? Hmmm...
I will wait, pending either a drop in offered price or new contacts. I doubt anyone else has boats this early.

2430BC - 1st Settler produced(Seems late, wonder why?) - Sent SW.

2390BC - Finally have Pump food evened out/in sync. I hope.
Price just dropped for selling ABCs to Tokie. Must decide between CB and WC. Probably CB just to empty his treasury. Plus I don't really need more troops yet. Support already shrinking bank account.
Writing in 20. This is taking forever!
Caesarea settled 1 tile SW of Cow. Will use Temple to grab last BG then start wonder, most likely. Colossus would be nice, Lighthouse would be nicer.
Must settle the lux down south - spice? incense?

2350BC - Adrian. finishes worker, begins Temple to grab Whales, then either wonder or more ships.

2310BC - Settler2 complete. Is that right or did I have a forest-chop somewhere in there sync me back up? Odd.

(... boring cruise-control Pump MM and exploring and stuff ...)

2150BC Hittites research Masonry - 5 to go on Writing, so maybe I can trade for that and some cash.

2070BC - Found Varna on Tobacco NW of capitol, next to Wheat.

1990BC - Settler4 complete. Writing done. Research Mapmaking 80%. Will found embassy with Hittites for 32gold, then trade them Writing for Masonry+30-ish gold, then trade Masonry or Writing to Japan for Wheel and Warrior Code. Soon to contact 3rd Civ. I think.

[donZappo]

Emperor Difficulty

I went into this with a slightly different idea. I wanted to exploit the seafaring trait right from the start! So I moved one space to the west and settled Constantinople right on the coast. Sure, I gave up the bonus resource, but resources seemed plentiful so I didn't think I would miss it until I got it back in the later ages. Plus, it was basically trading in a shield for some gold, right? I set my worker to irrigate the bonus plains right next to it, and dragged this irrigation through to the cattle to the south. Oh, and I started on a curragh to get a real feel for the trait. I set my research to pottery at 100%

I sent the curragh off to the south and discovered Japan in 3550. Definitely pleased with the speed of that meeting. I noted they have two patches of Ivory. Nice play, Dom. Either you have to be good friends with them and trade for the spare, or find the dark place in your heart and invade their small island. I got their wheels for my alphabet, so I guess they'll be speaking my language for the rest of the game...

I finished researching pottery in 3200 BC and decided to risk a 50 turn gambit on writing going for a Map Making grab. I had hoped to meet other civs and try my skills at trading to keep me up in techs until then. Or get lucky and trade Map Making to everybody for much money.

I met Sumeria in 2800BC. Between them and Japan I got Ceremonial Burial and Masonry + 3 gold for The Wheel and Pottery. Woo hoo, the early curragh gambit is paying off!

I finished my granary in 2750BC. I already had two warriors to this point, both being MP as my citizens were getting quite unruly. I was holding off exploring by foot for a good deal of time since my curragh has led me to believe I'm on an island and have such a luxury... I set my worker to cut down a tree so that the turn after the granary finishes I'll get the shields added to my settler to make up for a bit of REX time lost.

2590BC - I thought about trading Masonry to Japan for their Warrior Code. I saw no reason I should help them get to Mathematics any faster than normal, so they won't be seeing this tech from me.

2470BC - Founded my first city, Adrianople to the northwest.

2390BC - Finished building a curragh so I could go Curragh --> settler to coincide with city growth. Risked my first goodie hut. Freakin' Barbs!

I met the Hittites in 2310BC. I bought the Warrior Code off of them for The Wheel and pocket change. I've discovered something, well, "interesting" to my west but I guess I won't spoil the surprise for anybody. I start to feel my benevolent heart start to beat black blood through my veins as I ponder my future expansion routes.

2150BC - Founded my third city, Caesarea to the northeast. Kinda close to the swamp but I'm alright with that.

I'll have my next city put down in about 4 more turns. Having sacrificed some early REX for curragh exploration and being on the coast has actually paid of quite well! I met 3 civs, have a tech lead on two, and am only down Mysticism to one other. My cash is flowing and my island is going to be quickly populated in the next few years. If my writing gambit really works out for me, I'll be sitting quite pretty! That extra cash is definitely helping with negotiations for the time being.

Dominae - Nice map! I'm really liking it so far! I see that you've done some interesting things to kinda force our hand in certain directions, but I see some great choices to make in the real near future. You also appear to like to give us a taste for the new terrain in Conquests.

-donZappo

[donZappo]

I'm surprised I beat you to the first settler, Ducki, since I took a round-about way of doing things. I used a forest to boost it a bit, but I still would have sworn you had me beat. Good looking game you have there so far. I wish I got bonus settlers like every other player does. I do think you should see a doctor about that MM virus you have caught, though!

[ducki]

Well, since (without the hut-settler) I wouldn't have had any defenses at all until 2750BC, that was quite a gamble, but if I built military for defense, I'd need one for the capitol and one for the worker in case the hut was nasty - which means no building a worker in the first 10 turns. It really was an all or nothing deal as far as I was concerned - either no early worker or no early military. It paid off this time, but I'm not sure I'd risk it again anytime soon.

I have to also agree that this is a great map so far. Thanks Dominae!

I can't wait to see how many folks go for a Philo beeline, if any.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by ducki
Tried MM Citizen in Adrian from game to coast - adds 1 happy-commerce. No change in beakers. Now I've got the MM bug. Gaaaahhh!!!!

Good luck trying to shake it now!

Also figured out what's been eating me about the map - it's so hard to do my usual CxxC spacing without either wasting bonuses(BG, tobacco) or losing out on either coastalness or fresh water.

Extra Commerce (from Tobacco, for example) is never lost when you found a city over it. It's annoying to cover Bonus Grassland tiles because then you do lose that 1 Shield, but between that and having more coastal tiles to work I would prefer the latter (especially on this map).

Originally posted by donZappo
I went into this with a slightly different idea. I wanted to exploit the seafaring trait right from the start!
...
Woo hoo, the early curragh gambit is paying off!

Excellent!


Dominae

[Stuie]

Well, I'm probably in over my head playing on Emperor, seeing as I prefer an easy-going Monarch game usually. And I'm totally pissed at the people getting settlers from the hut. I got a warrior.

I'm also not a mircomanager usually, so I missed some opportunities along the way. Ah, well. Live and learn.

4000bc - found Constantinople on the starting spot. Build order = Worker. Reasearch = Pottery @ 90%. Worker moves to the shielded grassland.
3950bc - Worker builds mine
3700bc - one turn to late, I switch the citizen from the fist to the shielded grassland. Oops. Now the city will grow before the worker is finished.
3650bc - Worker1 builds a road. Worker2 built. Build order switched to Barracks (as a Granary pre-build).
3600bc - Worker2 heads for the cow.
3550bc - Boarders expand and pop the hut - I get the aforementioned Warrior.
3500bc - Move warrior to the capital for crowd control (I'm really bad at using the slider - must improve).
3250bc - Workers have been roading/irrigating - irrigation of cow begins. Pottery researched; switch to Writing at 20% (Philosophy beeline anyone ).
2950bc - Workers are prepping 2nd city site.
2800bc - Luxury slider to 40% (one turn late . Constantinople is now size 3).
2710bc - Granary complete. Build = Settler.
2510bc - Settler complete. Build = Settler.
2470bc - Adrianople founded on the coast. Build order = Curragh. Workers move off to prep 3rd and 4th city sites.
2430bc - Volcano becomes active!!!!
2350bc - Volcano erupts - tiles effected are east and south.
2270bc - Adrianople builds Curragh1. Build order = Curragh. Curragh1 contacts the Japanese to the south. We trade Alphabet for Ceremonial Burial and 10g.
2150bc - Settler2 is finished - this one will be moving NW to the tobacco for my third city.

Not a very clean game, but like I said, I don't enjoy micromanaging. At least I'm having fun... so far.

[Smellincoffee]

I tried attaching it four times, but it wouldn't allow me. It said my picture had to be no bigger than "800 x 0".

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Smellincoffee
I tried attaching it four times, but it wouldn't allow me. It said my picture had to be no bigger than "800 x 0".

That's right. You need to use an image editing program such as Photoshop to resize the image so that it's under the maximum size allowed (800x600). When you capture images using Print Screen, it uses your screen's resolution (probably 1024x768, or higher), which is too big.


Dominae

[Cort Haus]

How many turns till Writing, Nathan?