So Very Cold of Play the World

[Nakar Gabab]

The Barbarian tribe is Anasazi, suggesting that he's either the Americans or Iroquois (both Expansionist). If the map is large or huge, the value of goody huts could be huge, so there's something to be said for scouts on that level...

...am I close?

[Killerdaffy]

Originally posted by Olaf HÃ¥rfagre
Killerdaffy: Elephants on tundra? Are they mammoths or what?

Yeah, it's 4000BC remember? They'll die off soon though, hunted to extinction by the small bands of human settlers that can't find anything else to eat.

Aeson: I'm curious about your building order. I suppose you play on emperor or deity. How can you build a scout before you have any military police and no lux attached?

By using the luxury slider.

[Killerdaffy]

Originally posted by Aeson


Did you also get those "moo" sound bites from Diablo II stuck in your head when looking at this starting location?

The key is to find the Cow King and kill it! Remember to open a second portal so you can get to your body without taking on the herd bare-handed in case you got killed.

[Chemical Ollie]

Yeah, getting a second scout early makes sense on huge maps with raging barbarians. I recently played expansionist on Marla's World and got 8-10 techs and 2 settlers from huts.

[Aeson]

The luxury slider is my friend! I tend to end up with more gold than I know what to do with anyways. I'm playing with sedentary barbarians so no need for early defenses either. This is strictly a front-running (since 1500AD) score bloating game.

On a Huge map I try to build 3 or 4 Scouts right off, then get about 10-15 total before building much of anything else. Scouts aren't as useful as they were before the Huge map was made smaller, and Scout resource denial gimped... but they still are the most useful (non-pop) unit in the first 2-3000 years.

Consider that thanks to my Scouts in that game, I have all the mainland AI contacts (they are still split in two groups), 2000 gold, all the ancient techs but Horseback Riding (kept from getting it on purpose) and the two governments, and 1 Settler from a hut (~3000BC) all by 1000BC.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Aeson
Consider that thanks to my Scouts in that game, I have all the mainland AI contacts (they are still split in two groups), 2000 gold, all the ancient techs but Horseback Riding (kept from getting it on purpose) and the two governments, and 1 Settler from a hut (~3000BC) all by 1000BC.

This should be linked to every post that says the Expansionist trait is useless.

[Arrian]

I assume you chose HBR as your research and then shut research off in order to avoid it? Planning to upgrade some chariots to Mounted Warriors, were ya?

Yeesh.

I spent most of last night looking for a beautiful start location, and didn't find one. I was in the mood for a nice "builder" style game, so I dropped down to Monarch and chose Egypt. If the freakin' map generator would have just cooperated...

-Arrian

[Aeson]

Yep Arrian, only this time I'm using the Amerians with the proper color and name modifications, so no MW's.

I sympathize with your map generator woes. This was about the 500th map I looked at (spent the last 2 weeks of my playing time looking). Played through the AD's on 3 others that looked pretty good, only one the Zulu's decided to go to war with the neighbor on my other side, and after making peace with 100 of their units in my territory, decided not to go home. I held them off, but Impi's decimated my Horsemen force I had built up.

The other two games, Bismark came marching in with his starting units as soon as they could traverse the 30 or so tiles between our locations. Again I could hold them off, but certainly puts a damper on the score.

[Arrian]

Ah, the Americans. Solid choice for a peaceful(ish) borg style power game. The best expansion civ in the game.

What was really annoying about the map generator was the amazing, wonderful, incredible start it gave my girlfriend (Egypt/Regent). I liked that one so much I played "advisor" until she got bored with it and I took over. Oh, the power. I felt kinda guilty playing on Regent, though.

-Arrian

[Flandrien1]

Just a question :

When you have little grassland, is it wise to build your cities on grassland squares ?
I think it is better to build them on a tundra square.
You get 2 food in your city center anyway.

[Killerdaffy]

Originally posted by Flandrien
Just a question :

When you have little grassland, is it wise to build your cities on grassland squares ?
I think it is better to build them on a tundra square.
You get 2 food in your city center anyway.

Correct, I should have moved my city one square to the NE. I wasn't really keen on playing anyway, I guess...

[jshelr]

You should trademark "Orangesodia" before someone steals it.

[joncnunn]

On the first screen shot, it does look like there's another island NE.

Science needs beelined to Map Making. One city needs to build the Great Light House ASAP. Another needs to build a Galley. Hopefully you find out soon if there's an AI over there you need to displace.

In the second case, I'd be beelining for Horse Men instead, in case there's another civ in better terraign east of those mountains.

3rd case looks fine to me. That tech might come in useful for either trade or building units. Yes a Settler would be better, but free Settlers are rare.

[Catt]

Originally posted by joncnunn
3rd case looks fine to me. That tech might come in useful for either trade or building units. Yes a Settler would be better, but free Settlers are rare.

Aeson was being sarcastic about the settler. It is a fabulous start, which he has spent the past two weeks looking for (his estimate of 500 maps). He is playing a "HoF" game or Hall of Fame game -- seeking to set a single-player high score. I don;t spend much time in the HoF (and don;t play for HoF), but unless something has changed, Aeson currently holds the record for the highest score -- something like 62,000+ points.

Catt

[Jawa Jocky]

With the amount of time I have available to play Civ3, I would probably finish a HoF game just as Civ4's 1st expansion pack patch is being released