AUSG101 - Domination team DAR 1

[Dominae]

Master Zen, by popular vote we decided to judge another team's blocks. As part of the Domination team, you get to critique the Opportunist team.


Dominae

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Konquest02
Here are my game notes and the save. Feel free to look at them.

Maybe I mised something, but I only found a wrod doc in the zip.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Beta
And the save:

It was empty and so it Arsenals. So I could not find a save in any of the zipped files??

[Konquest02]

Here is my save... I thought I put it in the save, but vmxa1 proved me wrong...

Renamed the save. It's the same file though

[Konquest02]

Originally posted by Dominae
Master Zen, by popular vote we decided to judge another team's blocks. As part of the Domination team, you get to critique the Opportunist team.


Dominae

Can I take MZ's vote anyways...?

[Theseus]

We can still discuss the games!!

MZ, thanks for the critique. I forgot to include the thought in my DAR, but I have been playing with the long-term idea of treating the cities placed at 3-tile as camps, and build the cities beyond them at 2-tiles further out, thus 5-tiles from Mecca. Unorthodox, I know, but this way we get off to a blazing start for a Horsemen Rush, and, if we do in fact later pull an Abu Bakr Deception, we can build mofo huge cities at the core and still spread out for a large number of cities. Just idle thoughts in the back of my mind.

[Master Zen]

ARRGH!!! I though we could vote on anyone's game.

Must read poll thread, must read poll thread, must read poll thread....

Sorry bout that! Guess my vote doesn't count!

Theseus, interesting idea. I think it would be great idea to post long-term ambitions for each save because some things might not seem obvious with the turns played, but suddenly look much more sound in the long run. That's the reason I put the "X"s in my screen shot because anyone who saw how close my cities were would probably think me a madman!

[vmxa1]

Konquest02 that works, I renamed it to include Roths format, so I could keep them straight.

[Rhothaerill]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Konquest02 that works, I renamed it to include Roths format, so I could keep them straight.

Yes, please if you can try to rename the save to the format I specified in the first post of each DAR thread. With 17 or so savegames floating around for this turn block alone it will get confusing after a while whose save is whose. The format is name-team-turn (i.e. rhoth-domination-2150bc). Thanks all.

[Konquest02]

Edited my post to rename the save... Problem fixed!

[Rhothaerill]

Thanks Kon.

[vmxa1]

Well here goes nothing.
I won't repeat the step by step evaluation here. I think the games I have seen come down to three big concepts and how the individuals view them. I am ignoring the MP and other minor points.

1) Research rate and starting selection.

It seems to come down to 100% or managed. By that I mean you start at 20 and drop it after the first bump and then adjust as you grow.
I am not opposed to either, but at this level, I would be inclined to manage. Especially since I will probably have to change my selection a few times as I hit a hut or get a trade.
Selection of the tech seems to be a nit, but not invalid point that has been made by Dom.

2) Granary

Well I am not sure what is best on this pick. I am not going to view it as wrong or superior, until I see the out come. I felt in this setting, I would rather get some things done first, but that may be an error. I am hoping to see an discusion to be convinced. It is likely an error for a domination attempt, as I would think camps makes sense then.

3) City spacing/location

Now I feel less qualified to weigh in on this as I have done so little with RCP and really nothing with camps.
I have been sort of picking at it an observing to see what makes sense and how to approach it and when.
I will say that some goals are more suitable for camps than others. I think close spacing is more important as you move up and especialy in a domination attempt.

Now on with my perspective on the games posted. I felt it was not my job to select one based on how they got to where there are. I mean if game A is better situated than B, I don't care if A did not make all his moves the way I would. I figured I will pick the game that I would prefer to pick and play at this juncture.

So my first cut was down to MZ. Taian, Kon and Theseus.
I felt they were in stronger position to move forward.
The next cut was harder as I liked all of them.

MZ I really wanted to see the camps and how that would work out, but I had to give the edge to Theseus for the strong units and non threatening bars suituation.
I like the connected cities and you have a good capitol, but no temples and may have a problem with the barbs, if things do not break well. Probably nothing you could not handle.

Kon, I think it looks great, but I was curious about the jump to build Colossus. Is this a place holder or a real attempt to get the wonder? Not a criticism, just a quest for understanding the goal.

Taian, this was the hardest one for me. I like HBR and IW already learned, 4 cities. This means horse rush or swords. I much prefer to have a few swords to deal with barbs as warriors are not a lock to win. Ultimately I felt that the barbs looked ominus and you have a settler heading off with no escort and only 1 worker. I am not saying these things cannot be dealt with, but in the end you have another game that does not face those problems. I had to have some place to hang my hat to pick one.

So I came down with Theseus's game. About the only thing I could say is no contact with Cath and that part of the map not exposed. If that is the cost of being in such good shape with Vet Horses coming soon, I guess I can live with that.

Nice work by all and I am not sure I am up to making these choices. I look forward to everyones next batch.

[Konquest02]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Kon, I think it looks great, but I was curious about the jump to build Colossus. Is this a place holder or a real attempt to get the wonder? Not a criticism, just a quest for understanding the goal.

I think it was what I sometime call a "Pathetic Attempt" TM at a wonder. I saw the deadline approaching (2 turns) and figured that nothing could be built in that span. So I've put the Colossus a bit like someone who finishes a tech on that turn. So yes, it's a placeholder, but having this wonder could do great things to our research rate in this city.

The more I think of it, the more I come to think that it's a leftover from my builder tendencies... I really like to have a science city in the Ancient Age and Damascus is just great with the river and the grassland. However, it may not "fit" in the domination goal.

Gotta build to destroy...

--Kon--

[TheArsenal]

Not sure my ego can withstand too many more of these critiques.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by TheArsenal
Not sure my ego can withstand too many more of these critiques.

I look at it like this, it was a photo finish and there were no nags. In the vernacular of the day, "its all good".