Pyramids

[DeepO]

Hey, [don't ] stop editing my posts!

DeepO

[DeepO]

BTW, I lost my reply to Nathan, and you edited two post at the same time?

[OPD]

lol for a minute there I went mad with power. But when I couldn't edit anything in the other forums I decided to resist the temptation to act very very childish.

Any way I'm going to run a quick 10 min test just for my own sake. I havn't much time so it'll just be a random map on chieftan with no barbs to see how many stlrs I can make in the same time as it would take to build the pyramids using the capital city and w/o developing land.

[Shiber]

Why not just use Alex's scenario instead of a random map? It should give more accurate results.

[Dominae]

Why go "all or nothing"? Here's a new proposal: let's produce one or two Settlers in our first cities, then switch the higher-production one to the Pyramids. This will jumpstart our REX phase, making it faster than any other teams'. At the same time, we'll have started a Wonder earlier than anyone else (I doubt any team will start a Wonder when they have only 3 or so cities). Thoughts?

I also have to mention that I'm very much against using Workers to boost our Wonder city. Early Workers (if we decide to build them) are far too precious, especially Industrious ones.


Dominae

[DeepO]

Dominae: If we would follow that scenario, we wouldn't get the pyramids. It is really an all or nothing approach, although the addition of workers might be something to test. But I think it is obvious that at least a few teams will try to get the pyramids, if we are going to do it we should at least have fair chance of getting it. If we wait until we build a settler, or even a spear in city #2, we might lose the advantage we have now.

DeepO

[Dominae]

DeepO, why are you so sure we'll lose the Pyramids if we do not start ASAP? Consider the case if we did not have the extra Settler: most teams would be finishing their first Settler by now (like us), and would be preparing for another in their 2 cities. I seriously doubt they would begin a Wonder with only 2 or even 3 cities in their empire. Our extra Settler just means that we're one "cycle" ahead, so we should be beginning our Wonder before anyone else.

Although I admit it is not a good idea to base our plans on what we imagine other teams to be doing, I'm convinced other teams will not prioritize any Wonder so early. We have that option because we got our Settler-gift. There is definitely an increased chance that we might lose the Pyramids nonetheless, which is why we should set ourselves up for a switch-over Wonder.

On a side note, given how divided the team is on building the Pyramids in the first place, I think a compromise is in order.


Dominae

[Arrian]

Just say "no" to the despotic golden age!



-Arrian

[zeit]

I vote a cautious yes- i'd love to have the pyramids, but wouldn't sacrifice a worker for it, it seem we better with the worker for now. I have far less exprience with the game than anyone here, but i still think that if we keep ourselves isolated from the other teams (or forced to be seperated) we must focus on REX and take a few risks to get it, like this wonder, for example.

[Dominae]

I would like to clarify a point here: building the Pyramids will not speed up REXing. Unless we have access to around twice the landmass that is already visible, by the time we finish the Pyramids, most of our continent would be settled if we focused on pure Settlers instead. In other words, for the Pyramids effect to kick in and really affect REXing, we would have to still be expanding by the time the Pyramids are finished, which is too late IMO. The two times the Pyramids actually help REX is when there is a lot of land to expand into (a lot more than we have), or if a Great Leader appears in an initial skirmish (not likely to happen in our game). So, saying that the Pyramids supports a quick REX strategy is false. I'm not 100% sure about this, mind you, but the 5 or so games where I've tried to get the Pyramids to help me expand were unsuccessful in that regard.

I suppose we could go "all out" and pump Workers into our Pyramid city to get it up and running really really fast; I have no experience with this strategy.

Under normal circumstances, what the Pyramids would do for us is boost our post-REX build-up stage, when we're trying to get our cities big and productive. Couple with a GA, this could be very powerful.


Dominae

[alva]

Coupled with a jumpstart for another wonder maybe...?!

Edit from Dominae: Whoa, I just edited your post alva...now how did I do that!??

[OPD]

*OPD mumbles incoherently about war against Irag.

Then says something about the pyramids being worth 5 and a half stlrs (yes I know it's not eight) in the first city and a further 4 stlrs in the cities that could be built from those stlrs before the pyramids are finished. Then something anout no lonmger caring and somethings about skywalker being a bit of a pain bu t only being a lonely 14 year old with nothing else to do but surf poly.

Anyway happy new year to you all may 2003 bring you much happiness and keep you're resolutions aslong as you can.

opd

[Dominae]

Originally posted by alva
Coupled with a jumpstart for another wonder maybe...?!

If we happen to be out of Despotism as well, the sky is the limit.


Dominae


P.S: Sorry for editing your post alva...Won't happen again.

[DeepO]

Dominae: we can assume that at least one other civ got a free settler as well, which they either could set aside for the pyramids, or not. I'm not saying we are going to lose the race if we don't start on it right away, I'm just saying there is a chance they at least put their 3rd, or 4th city to the wonder. That, we can't match, even with perfect terrain (which we do not have, some cows would outproduce us without worker adding).

I don't agree on the 'Rex is not helped by it in our situation', but allow me to test it out, I guess that if we find ourselves on a larger land, with no enemy nearby (enough for e.g. another 8 cities), the arguments against it would fall. I think that what we see now we certainly can occupy, and only more can come. Testing will tell us how the balance lays precisely.

DeepO

[alva]

If we go straight for monarchy, how long would that take us ??
An estimated guess will do , and assuming no tech trade (which at that part of the tree is rather unlikely)

Btw: editing other peeps posts is sooooo old, pfff we've been doing that back in the olden' days