Looking at the map - I’m thinking to centre my city on 21-6
Are the blue/ grey hexes (18-6 to 19-4) water? Some other hexes are a more vibrant blue.
I have a mountain range to my right (brown hexes)
I’m assuming the things that look like bushes/ trees are where wood is produced?
Not sure about the plain, light green hexes
Sorry, the rules don’t describe each hex type.
Every tile has a different level of saturation, which I assume was both an aesthetic choice and a way to distinguish between tiles for start locations.
Yes, your assumptions are correct. The green hexes are grassland.
Wood > spend wood to get wood, becomes grass
Grass > spend seed to get matching food, or wine, becomes polluted
Water > spend wood to get fish/dye/pearls, becomes polluted
Mountain > spend wood to get stone/gold, becomes polluted
I know this would all be more easily explained visually, but I cannot get to the computer right now.
21-6 is the wrong start tile - you are bottom right.
Don’t know why I thought I was red
But would 21-6 have been a decent position, so I know what to look for
Yeah, looks fine to me.
Unfortunately this is not a legal placement, as your city is not fully on your start tile.
How’s 6-18 looking for the centre of my starting city?
Looks fine. The main choice appears to be between keeping the explorer token (as 6-18 does) or discarding it to enhance range of a harbour (various other options). Depends on what your opening build will be. If you are going with an explorer, I recommend keeping access to two exploration tokens, because if the first one reveals wine, you’ll need the second one to find something more nutritious.
(Incidentally, I like the fact that if you only find grapes, you cannot use them for food, even if your people are starving…)
@Captbnut 22-20 is fine. Just note that you are only in range of one exploration token, and you can build your first city on water if you want to. Neither of these remarks are recommendations that you change your choice, just making sure you know.
OK, Phase 2 has started! (nothing happened in phase 1, and there are no decisions to make in phase 1, ever)
We are now in the City Building phase. You’ll need to refer back to the player aid and the image of the player board in the first post, as well as the instructions/recommendations for your first turn that I prepared earlier and still haven’t updated with pictures.
This phase is secret so please do not post your builds publicly.
You can send me coordinates for all the buildings you want to place, a hand-drawn map, whatever you like as long as it gets the necessary information across.
Don’t forget to build 3-4 houses (the free ones) and man your carts/explorers. In the first turn, manning all the things you build that can be manned is a given, but best to get into the habit of giving full instructions.
A problem with the PBF format is that you don’t have the pieces in front of you to play around with to plan your first city. You could download the Vassal module, or try sketching a map.
Don’t forget to leave space for graves!
Here’s an example city build instruction:
3 wood for 3 carts.
1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, 3-2, 4-1, 4-2, 5-1
3 houses
6-1, 7-1, 7-2
3 men on the 3 carts.
For blue, those instructions would end up looking like this:
Once all the city build instructions are in, I will post images of all four cities, update the player order (almost certainly no change from what it is now), and players can start giving me countryside build orders.
Link doesn’t work, but probably? Also posted on the opening post of the game thread.
There is a player aid from an earlier edition that looks a bit different but has the same information on it.
A couple of questions. I’m looking to send out woodcutters - locations 20-20 and 24-20. I believe they will give me a supply of 1 wood per round. My reading of the rules says they will harvest the whole wooded area, 1 round at a time - is that correct? If so it looks like the one going on 24-20 will collect wood for 8 rounds.
Second question - I will build houses and carts within my city. Do the woodcutters (and I suspect mine) have any presence within the city, or are they countryside only?
Finally (for now) - the Faculty of Biology requires 2 stone to build (for example), if I only have 1 mine, do I need storage to get a second stone?
Each woodcutter will harvest their hex and adjacent hexes only. So looking at the map, those numbers are definitely wrong 24-20 will get you 3 wood for a net gain of 2 wood. 20-20 is the same. 19-19 and 25-20 would net you more. You are right that you only harvest 1 a turn, unless you have a manned Forced Labour.
The houses give you a man each. The man is placed on a cart. In the next-but-one phase, any man on a cart can be placed on the map to build something. That man will stay on the map until harvesting is complete in 0-7 turns. Countryside buildings have no presence in cities.
The only ways to get 2 stone are 2 stone mines, 1 3+hex stone mine with Forced Labour, or using storage/San Christofori/Santa Maria.
If these answers change where you want to place your city, that’s totally fine.
That’s where I’ve got it wrong - its adjacent, I was looking for a chain of wooded areas.
If others don’t mind, I’ll have another look at the map. Did you say my city could go over water?
That’s right. Only your first city may be placed on water.