I don’t think too many people is going to be a problem! We’ll wait a bit to see if a fourth player turns up.
Now it looks like it’s going ahead, I’ll also use this thread for rules and the like.
The game is going to require a lot of communication of coordinates. I’ll be providing the map with all the hexes and squares labelled. Instructions for hexes will be easy enough, just tell me where the man goes, or which hex to harvest. Two-hex fisheries will require two coordinates. Instructions for buildings will be a bit trickier, and could be given in two ways: a coordinate of a top left corner pretending the building is a rectangle and a number of rotations from current orientation; or coordinates for all squares.
Many phases can be played simultaneously, so I’ll accept instructions by private message. I’d prefer not to use hidden tags, because desktop notifications can inadvertently reveal the message, but hidden tags can be used too.
So, assuming you read the rules, here’s how the first turn will play out:
Setup + Building
I’m going to randomly assign start tiles.
Your starting city needs access to sufficient stone and wood, preferably some water (adjacent water can be nice for when you get a harbour), and maybe 2 exploration tokens. Since your zone of control is range 2, and a man placed at the edge of that zone can harvest the hexes outside that zone, right in the middle of your start tile might make most efficient use of it, but there are usually other concerns that make a different placement better.
You almost certainly want to use all 6 starting wood in your city+countryside building, because storage ties up a man, and without storage you lose any left over.
A great way to lose outright is to not have any wood income, so 2/6 has to go towards a cart and woodcutter.
You then have what seems like a choice between 2 more carts and 2 more mines/woodcutters/fisheries, or 1 more and an explorer. Exploring has a 3/4 chance of finding food, and thereby increasing famine by 1, so it also makes sense to use the 1 wood saved to build a granary to protect against the famine.
So: 3 carts, or 2 carts, an explorer, and a granary.
If you explore and get food, you can use that as a seed to start farming. Otherwise you will need either to fish, rely on a granary, or starve until you get 2 stone for a Faculty of Biology for free seeds. Early food is important because you only start with 4 houses, and the 5th and 6th houses at a cost of 1 food each really make a difference.
Storage
Nothing to see here
Harvest
Get 2 or 3 goods
Explore
Get a good if you have an explorer, 3/4 chance for each explorer to increase famine by 1.
Famine
Starts at 0, but any player who went with three carts is now going to have to place graves equal to the total number of explorers in the game who found food, minus 1 if one of the carts built a fishery. Then +1 famine.
Pollution
Every player places 3 pollution. This is really important. By the time you find more outlets or ways to deal with pollution, you are going to have a lot of pollution in hexes around your starting city. So make sure you “write off” enough hexes around your starting city when choosing your start location.
I’ll add some pictures to this post when I get a chance.