Antiquity, the most ridiculous game to PBF, beginners-only game recruitment and discussion

Hmm, making the two square zone most effective. Makes sense.

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25-5 seems more sensible.

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Float ideas as much as you like here, but I wonā€™t act on anything until it is posted in the game thread or to me in a direct message.

Also, a reminder: Iā€™ll be treating each phase as simultaneous until you start encroaching on each otherā€™s territory and turn order starts becoming relevant.

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Iā€™ve been in work this morning so am just beginning to digest the rules. I know with a Splotter you can lose in the first turn so Iā€™m going to take my time with this.

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Itā€™s good to have a plan - where are your carts going? Are you using an explorer? Where will you put your first four turns of pollution? What will you build first with your stone? Which Saint will you go with?

But itā€™s very hard to plan ahead in your first game.

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An idiot question. What are we actually trying to achieve in Antiquity? Iā€™m reading the rules about what I can do, but Iā€™m not sure why Iā€™m doing them.

I know the win condition is specific to your patron saint, but I assume Iā€™m trying to build an economy and feed my population?

A short introduction summary might be good for all watching.

Well, there are certain things you have to do - get a steady source of wood for everything else, get 7-8 houses (for which you need food), get a source of food (fish and constant expansion, explorer for seed then farming, or biology for seed then farming), get stone, to at the very least build your cathedral, but also other key buildings and a second city, for which you will need two different luxury goodsā€¦

So yeah, you need everything, no matter which victory condition you pick. Your first priorities though, are securing wood, stone, food, then more long term a way to cope with then maybe outpace pollution and famine.

I think this post is probably a better summary of early goals though, as it takes you through the first turn. The next few turns are just like it, but build on whatever you get.

You can look at it this way: you get 6 wood to start, and everything else must be built from that. There are no more free inputs (well, there kind of are, from Explorer, Biology, San Giorgio, but they have their own costs).

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Looking at the map - Iā€™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)
Iā€™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 donā€™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.

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21-6 is the wrong start tile - you are bottom right.

Donā€™t know why I thought I was red

But would 21-6 have been a decent position, so I know what to look for

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Yeah, looks fine to me.

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Unfortunately this is not a legal placement, as your city is not fully on your start tile.

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Howā€™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, youā€™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 starvingā€¦)

@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.

Just @RossM to confirm 25-5 in the game thread or choose somewhere else (or ask for advice).

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. Youā€™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 havenā€™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.

Donā€™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 donā€™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.

Donā€™t forget to leave space for graves!

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Hereā€™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:
T1P2 example

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