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I feel like I'm still fumbling the early game - getting access to resources to build your first town, and then using that town to secure further building resources to build the next town, and collector(s) - it just feels like a crapshoot whether you get to the essential resources first or the computer does. You know? Like if you're not doing good in the first 20 moves then you should almost start over because you have no chance of winning 😟 I'm not sure what to suggest to balance that out though - maybe decrease the price of building relative to how far behind you are in the leaderboard or something?

It's not that I mind getting off to a bad start, but it seems like your luck really snowballs in this game, so that there's just no way to catch up, one essential resources are locked down by other players.

Any strategy to share?

(+1)

Yeah, it's unfortunately more of a crapshoot than I would like.  The map generator tries very hard to put you in a fair (in fact the best) starting location, away from AI.  But the very unpredictable nature of the map generation might still mean you have a good starting experience on one map and a bad one on the next, especially because you have to choose to start exploring in some direction without knowing yet which direction is best.  There might be a beautiful valley of resources right behind you.

I agree about the snowballing, of course.  The start is crucial.  I feel the same way about every 4X game I've played, so at least I think we're still in good company.

I'm committed to the random nature of the starts (as opposed to, say, scripted or mirrored maps), but I agree it's sometimes frustrating.  If I haven't built my first town in 50 moves, I often start a new game.  The game carefully avoids any real penalty for starting anew.  Start over all you want.  It's another upside, I hope, to a game that takes only minutes to play.

Strategies:

  • When exploring, step on hills when you can!  You see farther from hills, which helps find crucial resoures.
  • Make sure you get 2 science quickly, while continuing to explore, and use those immediately to Detect any key resource you're missing.  Just remember you still need another science at some point to unlock Town building.
  • The map generator always starts you somewhere near a science resource, so if you don't find it right away, consider doubling back (through unexplored territory)
  • This is subtle, but:  If you're ever waiting next to a resource, killing time, use that time to do the Discover Town Building action, rather than wait until you're about to build the first town.  All actions take turns, so if you're going to spend a turn waiting for something, spend it researching/detecting/trading instead.
  • Food is (usually) far more common than other resources, so I try to avoid spending a Detect on that.  I figure I'll find some eventually.  I'm only sometimes wrong.  :)
  • Standing on a resource will mean you get it rather than an AI standing next to it.  (note: doesn't override buildings, just other AI heroes).  And in fact the AI will often give up and leave if you're standing on the resource they want.

There's a lot more that can help, but I think these are some good basics.  Feel free to sugest your own strategies here!  I find the start of the game challenging, and I'm always trying to optimize my starts.

thank you, those are some good tips! (exploring from hilltops I already figured out, as well as the "standing on a resource vs standing next to a resouce" collection precedence)

(And I get that these are issues that are kind of endemic to the genre, don't hold that against you.)

You could mitigate bad starts by one of the following (maybe as option):

- Reveal more of the map around the start point.

- Reveal the closest n resources, but not the terrain around them

- Reveal random patches around the start point

All these should, of course, apply to the player and AI.

The game is great, I just thought I'd pitch in my two cents on the topic :)

(+1)

Thanks!

I've already been experimenting a bit with the idea that's #2 on your list.  In my opinion, if too much is revealed initially, it kinda wrecks the start, makes it more of a chore and takes away some of the magic of finding resources you need.  But revealing a few resources (not everything you need) is not so bad - it gives you some initial direction while still requiring you to explore and detect.

I'm thinking of putting that in the custom game options in a future build.