[PB22 Spoiler] Joey and Borsche puke on the funny pages

[GermanJoey]

T71. Our Galley + Worker found a clam, so the plan is to settle that instead.

Borsche: that new island is pretty cool...
Borsche: really strong
German Jojo: the rice one?
Borsche: yeah
German Jojo: im about to move the galley right now
German Jojo: 1st galley move, no seafood
German Jojo: second...
German Jojo: arrgh
German Jojo: wtf do we do now
German Jojo: take a look at this
German Jojo: http://i.imgur.com/IbiSKDb.jpg
Borsche: lol
German Jojo: on the grass hill i think
Borsche: so our options are: settle on the PH, or settle two cities on the GH and the grass forest
German Jojo: yeah
German Jojo: or even just one on the grass hill
German Jojo: its either a 2h plant or
German Jojo: a clams
German Jojo: long term favors the clams
German Jojo: short term favors the ph
Borsche: yeah
German Jojo: both get rice first ring
Borsche: well basically the difference is
Borsche: will the clams make up the hammers lost by not settling on the PH?
Borsche: most likely yeah. even if it takes 50 turns, the plains hill is only getting an extra hammer per turn, which is fairly easily made up from the clams pushing food surplus from +5 to +7 (and then +9 with LH)
German Jojo: yeah
German Jojo: especially since we want a lh w/ the lake
Borsche: only takes like one whip at that point to make up the hammers lost
Borsche: probably best to move to the grass hill
German Jojo: yeah thats true, i didnte ven think of that
German Jojo: ok ill do it
German Jojo: if theres a seafood 1NE of the clam i am gonna jump off a fuckin bridge
Borsche: 1NW?
German Jojo: oh yeah i mean 1nw
Borsche: lol

[GermanJoey]

T72... we discover a critical piece of intel on one of our opponents...




Face Fister being the beloved (but now deceased) demon guard from the webcomic Goblins. http://www.goblinscomic.com

[agent427]

mackoti doesnt say much, but when he does talk, he proves that still waters run deep

[GermanJoey]

T75. We have a settler coming out next turn in GoatKCD, and another in Zen Pencils on T77. Where should we settle? I was thinking first at this PH down here on the southern continent (we have a chariot we can bring with for barb defense):




and then at the GOLD site:




what say you?

[Borsche]

Yeah that seems about right. Afterwards we should probably fill in the backlines at the crab floodplains.

[GermanJoey]

Borsche yelled at me to stop being lazy and post more details about micro, so hold on to your butts people.

First things first. Mackoti just finished the mids this turn, heh. This is pretty standard timing for a deity SP game but pretty damn quick for a MP game. For example, they landed on T100 in PB18! Mackoti is known to really love the mids, and here he's got stone, (formerly) tons of trees, and two early metals to stack whip unhappy, so it was pretty easy to predict that this would happen back when we first traded maps, lol... I wish we had the kind of resource access he does, but what can you do. He's also at 6 cities, like us, but with a size 7 capital and 3 more happy cap left to go.

Gavagai landed the Oracle a few turns ago, and there's a 190% probability that he took MC to rush out forges and the Colossus. (he's Fin/Ind, so go figure) He's only at 5 cities.

REMAI are at 6 cities and catching up in CY, although we just whipped a few times recently and have two more cities ready to plant in the next two turns. They still have only one silver hooked, unfortunately, but once they do hook another I'll see if they'll trade one for whales. Furungy still has 5, while HAK at 4. (wtf? did he fail a wonder?) I'm praying that Furungy will accept our OB request next turn; there's no reason he shouldn't, as we'll get +5 commerce while he'll +10. I have a work-boat ready to explore the islands to his north; if he notices that, its possible he'll ask for a map trade with OB - basically giving us OB at the cost of exploring his north for him. Its still worth it for us.

Alphabet finishes next turn for us, but we'll probably still be in dead-last place in score. It's not really anything to worry about, as we skipped TONS of ancient-era techs and didn't get ANY gold from huts. We'll catch back up later, don't worry.




Domestically, I'll go through the cities one by one.

First, new cities. We've got one down on the southern continent ready to settle next turn. It's able to share our capital's crabs (although that won't be for a few turns, as I'd like to quickly chop a granary ASAP) and grab another seafood after its borders pop. I've loaded two workers on that galley, which will unload next turn into the city in order to be able to move that turn (onto the forests). A 5xp, un-upgraded chariot is on hand as a garrison.




Next, we got this guy, at the plains wheat / gold. I think the best spot is 1NE of the wheat rather than 1E of the wheat. The advantage of the 1NE spot is that it gets first-ring gold and doesn't really need a barracks. The advantage of the 1E spot is that it gets a floodplain first ring, but needs a border pop to get the gold. I'd rather get the gold ASAP, because, like I said, we're freaking desperate for happycap. The settler will be able to settle either spot T79, btw, because I have two workers on hand roading out there. Our 8xp axeman is on hand as a guard.







GoatKCD is finishing up a library, our first. I'd love to focus on growing this city big and working cottages, but unfortunately our happycap remains the same as it was T0. It will improve very soon. We won't actually finish the library next turn, as there's no point considering that we'll be saving gold for while before we can turn on the jets for Currency. It's best to work on another settler instead in order to use the worker/settler food bug to avoid wasting production. Perhaps we can put it down at that clams filler spot, or perhaps use for that fish/whales spot on the southern continent. IDK.




ZP has a Barracks/Granary, and just used some big overflow from a settler double whip to make big progress on a lighthouse. We also shouldn't finish this right away; instead, this guy will hit level 4 then switch to a settler, again to prevent production waste from the settler/worker food bug. Once the whales gets hooked I'll let the LH finish, with the help of the copper.




MoJ is getting out an exploring workboat for the north island (which could circle back to the clams or whatever if we don't find anything), and is then going back on worker duty in order to not waste production. Also, next turn we'll work the mine instead of the cottage in order to generate a total of 7 OF production rather than just 1. 1 OF production will become 1/1.35 = 0.74 hammers, which rounds down to 0, while 7 will become 7/1.35 = 5.18h, which rounds down to 5. So, working that grass mine basically makes it a 1/5/1 tile for that one turn.




3CD is getting out another worker too, which will be specifically for getting our gold online faster. (With Exp (or Imp), its good to build workers at the bigger hammer sites, e.g. MoJ and 3CD, and settlers at the food-heavy sites, e.g. GoatKCD and ZP.) 3CD put 5 hammers into an axeman last turn, just in case we need an emergency whip here, i.e. if REMAI tries some BS. I'd like to get a few more military units down south if we can too.




The WB in Paulo's House is coming out right in time for the border-expansion onto the whales. Not much else interesting going on here; we'll start cottaging the floodplains once borders expand.




The last city, Face Fister, switch to a barracks this turn so that we can 1-pop whip it next turn. The worker on that island will chop that forest into a granary, in preparation for yet another 1pop whip (to finish the granary), then farm it. I guess he can then start pre-chopping the other forests while waiting for the borders to expand or something.

The last thing I have to check every turn is the EP graph. REMAI and Furungy have research visibility on us, and everyone else has our graphs. REMAI are likely trying for city visibility, so after we get Furungy's graphs I'll put all EP back on them to stop that. Furungy might not have met anyone else yet.




anyways, I think that's everything, lol...

[Borsche]

[GermanJoey]

What do you want for the wheat/gold city? Claretin?

[GermanJoey]

Mackoti accepted the gold trade! That's really big for us, as we were at happy cap in 5 cities.




Here's the trade route info. We're getting 5 foreign routes from Furungy, and 2 from Mackoti. It would be good to put more cities on the southern continent




We used the extra happy cap for some whips; we whip out a worker here, for 23 expanded overflow that contracts neatly into 17 raw overflow. I think it should go into a workboat, because we need a bunch workboats very soon; e.g. one for RIPFF, one for the new clams site that you suggested (to settle T85). The next site after, at least that I'd like, at the fish/whales on the southern continent, after that needs two as well. What do you think of that site for city #10, by the way? It wouldn't need much worker attention, has solid first-ring food that can be hooked the turn it settles, doesn't need a quick borders expansion, gets a 3c trade slot, and gets an extra whale resource, which we might be able to trade to Gavagai for his Ivory. (a market resource!)




I also whipped here, as we need some more muscle on the southern continent. I'd like to make sure we claim that hut before Furungy has the chance, and we'll need to clear away the barb warrior at the fish/whales spot before it can be settled. I'd also like to get an axe/spear garrison for this city sooner than later.




Demos are still looking awesome:




CY is very nice, as these demos were post-whip. MFG is extremely good considering our high CY, and early raw MFG is even more important in RtR mod compared to base BTS because the whip is nerfed. GNP is pretty good too; we were actually making 32gpt at 0% science before the whips, which is roughly double what we had a few turns ago. I think we can expect Currency by T92 or T93; I'll turn on the jets T84, where it should be an 9T tech. That's only a few turns after where I had it in PB18, and I focused waaay more on early commerce in that game. Power is ok too; we're low here, but we don't have archery to inflate our score - we should think about whether we want to pick it up after currency. We're also roughly equal with Gavagai/HAK/Mackoti, and a good 10k on REMAI.

Notice how far behind in total land area we are! Part of that is by design, due to us settling every city on the coast. The top end is probably dtay (who has a very high score despite no wonders) or plako (has a religion + stonehenge). Land + techs (e.g. we know REMAI have three cheap ancient techs on us, archery, mysticism, and polytheism, worth 18-19 pts) is why our score is low right now despite a lot of pop and eight cities. Score doesn't mean anything this early, really.

The big decisions coming up relate to our tech path. Our tech path, right now, is as we discussed: Alphabet -> Currency -> IW -> Compass. I still think that's best. However, we have a couple other options available to us too:

1.) We could pick up archery sometime, for cheaper garrisons and a bit of power-graph clout.
2.) We could sideline to Mysticism->Masonry->Polytheism at some point for the Temple of Artemis. The increase trade route yield would be awesome with Cothons, giving us roughly six extra commerce per turn for free by the time we build it. It'd also give us a chance for a Great Priest for REMAI's hindu holy city. We'd need to settle the southern continent's marble with city 11 or 12, however, and the only good spot for it places it second-ring. Too much of a distraction maybe.

Anyways, after Compass we have more options. Math should get full KTB by then, making it a good target, and then possibly Construction for cats. Calender is also a possibility, as we have two plantation happy nearby; we'd probably be too late for the MoM though. Grabbing a cheap HBR also looks pretty attractive, as we our Aggressive Numidians counter the Korean UU very nicely.

What are your thoughts here, Borsche? I'll play the new turn when I get home from work; this game has had a great turn pace lately, which makes it pretty fun right now despite the depressing long-term map situation.

[Borsche]

I think ToA might want to wait until after Compass? I'm not sure if that's too late to build it by then. Idk where else we would want to go at that point in time. ToA play could put us further to Monarchy just because of that part of the tech tree which might be useful with the small amount of happy resources we have atm. Math is the other decent option.

As for expansion I think it's probably smart to settle to the south, to get established there without requiring worker turns. We probably don't want to ignore that floodplains location to the north though, so we can put cottages there. That's gonna require quite an investment of workers though, so idk.