[SPOILERS] naufragar and Rusten get nickel-and-dimed

[naufragar]

Animal Husbandry is in. Here are the known horses:


Makes settling that deer a little more awkward. Notice how beautiful MSCC's plants can be. I don't think they have AH yet, but that desert hill that gets horse and rice is so natural, I imagine they settle it even without seeing horse. A quick glance at the power graphs doesn't show anything to worry about yet.

Here's an overview of the empire.


Rusten, I've placed a sign where I have been assuming a city would go, but I wanted to double check, since I couldn't find mention. Might've missed it. Everything else invalidates the western desert hill plant.

Tonight, I'll figure out where the micro goes from here. The worker puts a turn into a road 1S and 2S before the next city is founded and we get to improve the cow. Do we want a bronze unit out of New Viron?

Edit: Soon we won't need that scout to fogbust the south. We can either send him elsewhere to fogbust (east, probably) or we can try to scout behind our neighbors, perhaps find Mr. Cairo.

[Rusten]

Yeah, that was the placeholder spot I had in mind, and horses shouldn't change that.
Settling 1NE of cows and abandoning the desert hill for a city grabbing horses 1E of sheep is an option, but IMO we should just settle deer+horse and stick to the initial spots. X marks the spot.

As for builds it's been a while since I ran sims, but I'm fairly sure our next settler should come from New Viron (when it's grown 3 and completed warrior). The copper worker can chop a forest into it and then 1-pop it.* For our capital I think worker next is best. To be more precise, I think I liked whip settler --> worker --> grow to 4 with axe in queue.

After that I think I will leave any micro in your capable hands. The starting turns puzzle is the most interesting and impactful one. I think we should not bother getting a bronze unit and focus on development instead. It's enough to have the possibility to quickly make one right now. An earlier settler and worker will make a big difference as our 4th city is very good (sheep).

*In my earlier sims this chop was in time for a well-timed 1-pop whip. I'm not sure if it works out as well after the changes earlier. Depends on how early the chop comes in. You'll need to check it.

edit: Actually I think I got a 3rd warrior out of the capital before hooking up copper in my sims. Think it was after the worker. Note: When copper is available we can no longer build warriors and any existing ones will be upgraded to spears. Very efficient to fit a few more in. New Viron can get an axe after the settler probably.

[naufragar]

Welcome into the world Pajarocu!

After that I think I will leave any micro in your capable hands.

Coming up: a plane crash with no survivors.

I hadn't paid attention to tech in my sim, so I forgot we don't actually have Pottery to start Pajarocu on a granary.   We're on a warrior because we're last in power and a spear will eventually be useful, although I plan to hop off the warrior to a granary once Pottery's in. [Actually, I need to do the timings again. I might just lose the hammer in the warrior before the granary is complete. I'll think about it and maybe change to a barracks.]

Speaking of tech, counting turns spent at 0% research, we are 24 turns away from Metal Casting. I think that's our next tech. Sailing's a shame to put off, but it can wait. I also intend to save the capital's last forest for help with its forge. Our tech rate will improve as we get cottages up. I would like to play with samurai soon.

I was goofing around with sims. I think the capital wants a warrior, so the bronze worker chops before roading. The capital can finish the warrior the turn it grows to 4, which gives it its military police. Chopping before roading doesn't waste any worker turns. Chopping first also lets us whip New Viron's settler at 71/100 hammers and have it settle the desert hill on turn 51 when the capital extends its borders over the sheep. I'll keep working on worker micro.

Here are demos:


That's a lot of food.

[Rusten]

Chopping before roading copper sounds good. I think that's what I did in the sim too to enable the warrior and speed up city.
Can't get granary in time on size 1 anyway, but we'll be able to chop it (1x) and whip on size 2 for full regrow effectiveness there.

And yea, Boak+GKC will lead the graphs until the end of the game probably. Incredible advantage. I try not to think about it as it will only make me feel bad.

[naufragar]

Can't get granary in time on size 1 anyway, but we'll be able to chop it (1x) and whip on size 2 for full regrow effectiveness there.

That's right. I just played it out: we don't lose the warrior's hammer to decay. It is almost all finished by the whip+chop overflow. I figure an extra military police warrior isn't too bad.

[Rusten]

Logged in to take a look and found a peace treaty waiting for us from Mr. Cairo. He had a look with the scout. I'd provide a screenshot but I'm sure you know where it is already anyway. He had already left the territory.

Not sure why he didn't offer a cease fire instead, but I saw no reason not to accept it, so we have 10 turns peace as of T42. Not like we're about to enter his territory or anything ourselves.

[naufragar]

Logged in to take a look and found a peace treaty waiting for us from Mr. Cairo. He had a look with the scout. I'd provide a screenshot but I'm sure you know where it is already anyway. He had already left the territory.

Actually, that does surprise me. Last I saw, he was on the plains hill looking into both our cap and Pajarocu, so there was no need for him to move closer, and his scout's no longer visible. Odd.

I had wanted to send the scout southwest, but perhaps MSCC need someone to keep an eye on them.



We got Mr. Cairo's graphs. More interesting is MSCC's power. All below the fold.

Maybe the scout fogbusts in the desert. ~25 turns from MC. Too slow, too slow. Need more commerce.

[Rusten]

IMO the scout needs to fogbust for our next city. It can go long once that's planted. I think I'd keep it either on the oasis or 1N of the oasis. It also keeps an eye out for MSCC units until then.

Our commerce will pick up soon. The sheep city is immediately profitable and from that point on we can start planting cottages. In my sim I had a river cottage ready for Pajarocu on size 2. We should start thinking about when to build the barracks to enable furs too. Getting that +1 is very important ~20 turns from now and preferably we'll have it hooked up sooner. The good thing about planting these cottage cities early is that they will mature at about the same time and we can take full advantage of the extra population point. It beats having made a couple of cottages at the cost of expansion.

This is where Cairo's scout was start of the turn, so he declared war to save a single turn of movement. An unfriendly decision.

[naufragar]

In the back of my mind, I think I was using New Viron's warrior to fogbust. Hadn't actually checked if the city needed it for policing. Is there a reason you don't want the scout on the copper hill? It fogbusts fewer tiles, but those it misses are MSCC's problem anyway.

Absolutely agree with popping New Viron's borders as soon as convenient. The capital's culture will cover the last forest in New Viron's BFC, so we can chop a barracks at will.

[Rusten]

Yeah, New Viron warrior can fogbust I think, but it's not there yet. It can return for military police duties after the city has been settled. Scout can move when the warrior is in position. If the scout leaves right now there's a good chance at least 1 barbarian warrior spawns.
Maybe (chop) a barracks as early as after the settler in New Viron.

Copper hill for scout works too if you prefer that.