Turn 17 - 3360 BC

[Kloreep]

From the previous thread:

Originally posted by Cptn Fancypants
Are we aiming for the S or the SE? Either way, we can begin with 2-3 and 2-2 to reveal the hidden square just to our SSE.

As I have mentioned before, the southern jungle probably offers more unpopped huts, but the southeastern terrain appears to offer quicker movement and earlier contact with other civs.

Originally posted by polarnomad
Personally I would prefer not making contact too soon. Huts sound good.

Originally posted by Kloreep
with the completion of the worker, the oasis tile is no longer hands-down better than the alternatives; while it does produce the most total resources with 3 food and 2 commerce, it does not provide us any shields. However, I concluded that growing to size 2 and catching up with everyone certainly is urgent and we don't need the warrior that badly, especially when there's the 2 commerce to be gained. We certainly can discuss changing this in future turns though.
Personally, I think we should wait for the copper to be mined before switching to any shield-heavy activity. We'll definitely want to make use of the copper, so if we're to slow down growth and research, I think we should do it when we have that 5-shield tile to do it for.

Shot from last turn:

[Kloreep]

I'd say scout east, and send a warrior south into the jungle as soon as we can spare one.

Those mountains offer an opportunity to block an eastern civ off from the area south of us with just two well-placed cities. I'd like to find out if there's anyone east and their proximity if so.

[rush]

Protect the Scout, I propose 3-1 to end the turn on the Forest tile.

However, if the black spot is a hut/tiles that provides protection, then 3-2.

[Kloreep]

If we're heading south, I agree with those moves.

But if we're heading east like I'd prefer to see us doing, I think 3-3 would be the better move. We spend one turn in the open now to reach both forest on the next turn, and in the longer term unexplored land sooner.

[rush]

My preference is to go South, but gradually move towards the East. There are some "black spots" in the map that could be huts. Refer to the map posted on Turn 7 below.

Edited : I propose we go South till we reach the inland lake then move to the East. That would enable us to uncover more black spots

Can you post a more updated bigger map ?

Map from Turn 7

[polarnomad]

Not sure if this helps. I tried doing a collage of the map in GIMP, but as it turns out the camera over the map in civ isn't exactly straight down and it seems they're simulating lens distortion, so it was really tough. Some tiles are weird shapes and aren't exactly lined up but I think this might serve some purpose.



EDIT: In my messing around it seems the tile in Berlin that is worked got switched.

[Kloreep]

My thinking was to head southeast and swing immediately around the inland lake. From what we can see, it appears the jungle in the south extends to the east, so if we go too far south with the scout before heading east we'll still be slogging through it. If all goes well (no animals sighted and such) my thinking is to go from Berlin 2-3, 3-3, 3-3, and move around the mountains 6-3. The scout could then start moving east with 3 and then 9, 6, or 3.

[rush]

I was referring to the small 1 tile inland lake in the South.

In general, i was looking at exploring some hidden tiles around the inland lake before moving to the East. In general, the scout movement i have in mind is

[polarnomad]

So do we need to put this to a vote?

East along the coast: faster movement, probable contact sooner, cover more territory, some unprotected stops during which scout will be vulnerable, see what lurks just across the bay.

South east and back north: uncover quite a few remaining black tiles nearby, bit slower movement when we hit the fringe of the jungle, more protection for the scout along the way, probably delay contact for a few more turns, if we do make contact after breaking out of the jungle and head north then they may think we live south and not east.

I'm actually ok with either, but we should decide because our turn is coming around soon. It should be kept in mind, however, that according to our plan a new scout wouldn't become available for some time.

EDIT: Of course all this is assuming that someone is situated across the bay from us. For all we know they could be south below the jungle, or both...

[rush]

As Mercs, I don't see any immediate benefit of us meeting other teams earlier. We cannot exchange techs (until Alphabet). We cannot sell techs for cash (until Currency). Teams might be tempted to attack us early so that we won't be a threat in the long term.

My preference is to find and pop some huts, before looking for neighbours. There are some black spots in the South that may have huts.

I have an idea. Maybe we should map the squares that we have already popped a hut ! It's quite unlikely that we will find huts nearby those squares and we can avoid exploring them.

[rush]

The circles represent the locations of the huts that we popped. Total = 4. Looking at the spread of the huts and the distance between them, there is probably a good chance of us finding some huts near the 1 tile lake to the South and to the SE.

[Cptn Fancypants]

The east appears to offer better use of the 2-move feature of our explorer, but probably doesn't offer as many huts as the south, assuming that another civ lies to the east and will have already popped several huts. If no civ lies near to us in the east, then going east would seem to have a big up-side.

The south appears to offer better use of the superior hut-popping ability of our scout, but doesn't offer quick movement or animal evasion.

In the end, I would favor heading for open territory so that we reveal more of the map in less time.

[polarnomad]

So having thought about this issue some more, I tend to agree with Rush in that we do not benefit from meeting anyone too early. Likewise, I don't see the benefit in opening up a huge area of the map that we will not be able to utilise in the immediate future either. Having looked over the locations of our previous hut-popping activity (thx Rush) I do agree that there are likely to be more quite close by. These huts will definitely serve us in the near future and I would rather see us pop them than someone else.

So... I tend to lean torwards the more southerly direction.

This means that the vote is tied 2-2.

Who's gonna break the stalemate? Where is our leader anyway? Ooooh Unooo... Speeeeeak maaaaster...

EDIT: Rush, why is one of the hut locations white?

[polarnomad]

Ok, well here would be my route suggestion for the next 10 turns. As you can see there really are only 3 spots where we move just one space. Unless of course we find a hut... in which case we deviate and pop it.



EDIT: Made a couple modifications. Seems I just can't get right... and some more changes. This one is my last submission... no more changes. Ok, so I lied.

[Cptn Fancypants]

I'll vote for your route, polarnomad.