Strategy Discussion - Opening Moves

[Swiss Pauli]

What it says.

[Qwack]

Sorry haven't been here recently, will the map become visible on the day the game starts?

[Zeviz]

It sounds like somebody will have to log in, take opening screenshot, and post it here.

This means we'll have about a day for initial strategy discussion before we have to play the first turn.

[sooooo]

Hows about we move the scout onto the hut, repost a screenshot and then probably agree settle on the spot?

[Zeviz]

Sounds good to me.

This raises the question: How long should we wait before making moves that will reveal more information? For example, if that hut gives a map, we might have to think more carefully about where to settle. Although I agree that barring unexpected discoveries, settling on the spot is a good idea.

PS Don't worry, I am not going to rush and make moves until we've agreed on what to do and how long to wait for a consensus.

[mostly-harmless]

I agree with moving that scout to the hut.
I dont think there is a better alternative for a first move, so I suggest to go ahead asap and then repost a screenshot and have some more time for discussion.
That bare plains hill in the east looks suspicious metal heavy.

mh

[ruff_hi]

IIRC, you cannot pop a tech from a hut if you don't have a city. This would strongly suggest NOT moving the scout to the hut.

How can I look at the save? Are there addresses (ie IP) I need, passwords, etc or is only 1 of our allowed to actually look at it?

[darrelljs]

ruff_hi is correct, you can't pop a tech without a city. I recall that you can't pop a tech by popping a hut when settling your first city, but I did a civfanatcis forum search and came up empty. I have an alternative proposal for the Scout...move NW/SW. I think settling north is possible because we are basically losing (from what we can see) a Peak, Plains, Plains/Forest, Plains/River, and Grassland. I can really live with that, the only question is whether there are resources on the Grassland and/or Plains/River tile. Moving the Scout as suggested would reveal that. I would not favor moving west, since we lose the only two hill tiles in sight.

Darrell

[Qwack]

Originally posted by darrelljs
ruff_hi is correct, you can't pop a tech without a city. I recall that you can't pop a tech by popping a hut when settling your first city, but I did a civfanatcis forum search and came up empty. I have an alternative proposal for the Scout...move NW/SW. I think settling north is possible because we are basically losing (from what we can see) a Peak, Plains, Plains/Forest, Plains/River, and Grassland. I can really live with that, the only question is whether there are resources on the Grassland and/or Plains/River tile. Moving the Scout as suggested would reveal that. I would not favor moving west, since we lose the only two hill tiles in sight.

Darrell

Thats right, if you pop the hut on the first turn without the city, or pop it by settling the city, the only thing we can get is gold. If we pop is after we settle the city, or move the settler and let the hut pop by expanding city borders, we can get a tech.

[Swiss Pauli]

Doesn't exactly look like the land of milk and honey, does it?

I like darrel's proposal of Scout NW/SW then move the settler 1N if no specials are revealed by the scout.

Moving the scout onto to grass hill would reveal specials that we could grab by settling 1E of the current settler position, but I think darrell's is the better move.

[Sullla]

Sounds good, although all this discussion is moot if a new map ends up being created. (Because of course we couldn't even get through the first turn without someone screwing things up...) The starting position definitely looks a little weak, hopefully there are some resources just out of view in the fog.

Also whoever stuck a goody hut right at the start needs some serious lessons in scenario design. I'm still kicking myself for not editing out the one at the start of Epic 17.

[Zeviz]

What about moving scout onto the nearby hill, and moving the settler there if we like what we see? Our capital would get extra production from plains hill, and settling on that hill would give us a chance to pop tech from the hut (according to discussion in this thread), which is a pretty good chance on Noble. I think settling a turn later is worth a shot at an extra tech and the production benefit of that hill.

Another option would be to move scout NW->SW to see what we are missing, and then move settler onto that hill if we don't mind missing whatever scout reveals.

PS Who is going to do the actual move, and when? (Assuming they don't restart.)

[sooooo]

I really don't like settling on the plains hill. When most of the squares of the BFC like this are fogged then I normally just settle in place because we're bound to have food in there, just hidden. By moving we risk not having any food at all! Plus we lose the fresh water. I can see moving 1N, depending on what the scout sees, but that's about it.

Also, founding a city to get the hut in the second ring in the hope of popping the tech cannot be correct! Let's just put the capital in the right place! I still think the scout would be able to see most of the BFC foggy tiles if we move it onto the hut, so that's where I think the best place to move it is.

[sunrise089]

I agree with sooooo - moving to plains hill is only OK if you are sure you will have a food resource.

[Swiss Pauli]

We need to remember that this is a custom map, and it's not inconceivable that the mapmaker has deleted all resources from the vicinity of the starting positions to even up the game.

@sooooo & zeviz - how are you both fixed to play today?