Get Rich or Die Tryin': HidingKneel and Mardoc tackle the Khazad (Spoilers!)

[Mardoc]

Now that we've got contact with everyone, we can see exactly where we stand. City-wise, we've got seven, the Calabim have six. Everyone else is at four.

Excellent. The pace of new settlers incoming is also quite good news. With Sanitation now, we ought to grow like nobody's business.

Got two more settlers due in three turns. I think one of them should grab the cotton west of St. Canard: not because it's a great site, but because it's close enough to be easy to defend/improve. But I'm going to suggest we put it here:

Hmm. I mostly agree - but I suggest a further modification, actually. How about east one more tile? Lose a grassland, but we gain two grass riverside tiles. That would snug our border up to the elves pretty well, and grass riverside tiles are worth quite a bit once we get them farmed . Cotton plantation isn't great, true, but it's worth working, anyway.

Other city - perhaps to the south in the jungle by the rice? Either that or to the west of Spoonersville, grabbing some of the nice food resources out that way.

[HidingKneel]

How about east one more tile?

Ah, even better. Much better in the short term: it will have two riverside plains farms to steal from St. Canard (which doesn't need them), to make up for lack of good food resources nearby. And it'll require fewer worker turns to connect to our road network. Good, since I think expansion is going to soon lead to a worker crunch.

Other city - perhaps to the south in the jungle by the rice? Either that or to the west of Spoonersville, grabbing some of the nice food resources out that way.

West of Spoonerville, I think. Why grab uncontested land which is lousy, when we could start settling the great land in Jalapeno's direction? By the time we've run out of room for westward expansion, we ought to have a large enough workforce to clear the jungle in a hurry.

[Mardoc]

Ah, even better. Much better in the short term: it will have two riverside plains farms to steal from St. Canard (which doesn't need them), to make up for lack of good food resources nearby. And it'll require fewer worker turns to connect to our road network. Good, since I think expansion is going to soon lead to a worker crunch.

And actually - possibly borrow the Sheep tile too, since AH isn't far off .

Worker crunch is surprising, given Dwarven workers. But I suppose no one can settle at this rate without pushing the workforce very hard, yes.

West of Spoonerville, I think. Why grab uncontested land which is lousy, when we could start settling the great land in Jalapeno's direction? By the time we've run out of room for westward expansion, we ought to have a large enough workforce to clear the jungle in a hurry.

Well, I don't really think it's lousy land, just that it requires a lot of worker turns. All green, irrigated, and nice food special(s). That seems like an area that would make an excellent aristo-commerce city, with a lot of surplus food for something like, say, National Epic and half a dozen specialists. But...if worker turns are our limit, then you're right, it can wait.

Don't know that I want to wait forever; not in a huge hurry to border the vamps, and distance maintenance ought to be less to the south. But it looks like you're willing to push settlers hard enough that we'll have both soon.

[Mardoc]

Also - once Brutengrad gets its settler out, I vote for popping borders. Not because we need more tiles to work, but for security. That would give us a little more vision and time if WK chooses to try to come for us - or else force him to go Raiders at T71 and tip his hand.

AH or Fishing first depends on where the workers are hanging out, I think. I'd lean AH first because that would let the workers put up Pastures as their last main task in the core, before they migrate to the periphery. Fishing doesn't care about worker locations, so it can wait a smidgen.

[HidingKneel]

Also - once Brutengrad gets its settler out, I vote for popping borders. Not because we need more tiles to work, but for security. That would give us a little more vision and time if WK chooses to try to come for us - or else force him to go Raiders at T71 and tip his hand.

Agreed. On that note... T71 (or T72?) will probably tell us a lot about the intentions of our closest neighbors.

New turn played.

AH or Fishing first depends on where the workers are hanging out, I think. I'd lean AH first because that would let the workers put up Pastures as their last main task in the core, before they migrate to the periphery. Fishing doesn't care about worker locations, so it can wait a smidgen.

I decided to go with Fishing instead, because Calisota Spring popped its borders at the end of turn:



I wanted it to be able to start on a Workboat right away. We'll 1-turn AH next turn. We'll build an event fund after that, and proceed onwards to
Masonry -> Construction. I think you've convinced me that Hunting should come after that... we really need to up our happy cap. And we have so many sources of Ivory... it would be nice to be able to offer it to our neighbors.

Having met the Elohim, our wounded warrior is heading home:



Stopping along the way to pop some dungeons, of course.

We also got a border pop down south:



Jungle looks good. We'll get to it soon.

Dwarven vaults: empty

[Mardoc]

I decided to go with Fishing instead, because Calisota Spring popped its borders at the end of turn:

Ahhhh. Didn't notice that it was on the verge of being able to use Fishing - good call. Man, Calisota is growing fast!

It'll possibly allow a little less worker focus on Spoonerville, since we have that convenient lake. Not exactly great tiles, especially compared to Sanitation Aristofarms, but better than most unimproved ones.

We'll build an event fund after that, and proceed onwards to
Masonry -> Construction. I think you've convinced me that Hunting should come after that... we really need to up our happy cap. And we have so many sources of Ivory... it would be nice to be able to offer it to our neighbors.

Sounds good to me. That will pretty much finish off the worker techs, leaving us to the more macro-oriented techs. I think we can afford to keep going for economy, but of course that really depends on the neighbors.

Jungle looks good. We'll get to it soon

Is that Dyes? Pretty sure we don't have those yet Land this lush is always fun - I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Can't figure out how to embed this, but it describes my feelings right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pm4fQRl72k

[HidingKneel]

Is that Dyes? Pretty sure we don't have those yet Land this lush is always fun - I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Already got two up by Brutengrad. But having more can't hurt... it's something we can offer people.

Unrelated note: how sure are you that we want the Guild of Hammers? Right now, it looks to me like it's probably not worth the trouble.

To build forges directly, we need to tech Smelting (801 Beakers). Dwarven forge on quick speed is 167 hammers, but we're Ind which brings it down to 84.

To build the Guild of Hammers, we need to tech Writing (380 Beakers), Mathematics (950 Beakers), and Engineering (2203 Beakers), then build a Wonder (245 Hammers when adjusted for our Ind trait).

Altogether, that's an extra 2732 Beakers that we're paying. Figuring we get 20% prereq bonus on that, and going by the rough rule of thumb that 2 commerce = 1 hammer, the Guild comes out costing us 1383 Hammers. For that investment, we could have already built 16 and a half forges by hand.

Of course, there are tons of complicating factors to take into account:

1) The Guild does more than give a forge in every city: it also gives GE points (no biggie), free culture (yawn), and an extra hammer anywhere we work engineer specialists (nice).

2) All of those techs come with additional benefits. Engineering gives us bonus road movement. We might want to build Gambling Houses at some point. We'll definitely want Libraries. OTOH: Smelting reveals iron, and is a prereq for Iron Working (which we might want to tech at some point).

3) If we land the Guild, no one else can get it.

4) Building forges directly will get them to us sooner, especially in our production centers where they can do the most good.

[HidingKneel]

No turn today, but got some replies to my earlier diplomacy.

First Yell0w:

yeah we can do business, do you have something particular in mind?

Pithy .

More importantly, TBS:

Hail Flintheart,

It is good to hear from you again. You appear to be moving up in the world, I'm sure the 'Royal' tag is well deserved after your recent expansions. Alas, it is unfortunate to hear about the troubles with your nephew. I was under the impression that all dwarves were industrious and hard working sorts? Nonetheless, I think we may be able to assist you, Kwythellar is indeed full of myriad creatures and attractions, enough to hold the attention for many months.

However, Cardith tends to be a bit paranoid these days, complaining of scouts and spies on our borders. I've managed to convince him to take pity on your situation, but he insists that your nephew confines himself to Kwythellar and spends no extraneous time exploring the surrounding countryside or disturbing the locals. In addition, what knowledge of the Kuriotate lands he does gain must not be shared with any third parties upon his eventual return to Duckberg.

With respect to compensation, we confess to being a trifle curious about your capitalist faith. However we feel the voice of a missionary may be lost in the hubbub of our cities, a fully fledged priest would probably be necessary in order to have an impact on the Kuriotate culture. Would such a project be feasible?

TBS.

Before getting that reply, I'd mostly talked myself into using that merchant to bulb Currency instead. I really like the idea of swapping into Consumption when we get our Arete switch... but I suppose that can wait for our first Golden Age, instead.

Let's do a little cost-benefit analysis of our various options:

Join Duckberg as a specialist: 6 gpt and 1 food, from now until forever. We're not really in that stage of the game anymore.

Build the Tablets of Bambur: worth 2 gpt right now. Also gives extra culture (in a city that doesn't need it), some GPP, free Earth Mana, and increases our odds of spreading Kilmorph. Doesn't seem so great right now.

Golden Age: Rough estimate says this would add about 45 commerce and 25 hammers for 9 turns. Also will save a turn of anarchy when switching to Arete: let's say that's worth 100 commerce and 50 hammers. Total value: 500 gold, 275 hammers.
Downside is that it makes the next Golden Age more expensive.

Trade Mission: Worth approximately 730 gold. In exchange, TBS wants us to build him a ToK. Let's assume that I offer to do so as soon as we've teched Priesthood, and he agrees. Building a Stonewarden will cost 40 hammers (for a Thane) and 45 gold to upgrade it. Going by the rule 1 hammer = 2 commerce, that's 125 gold. So we're down to about 600 gold profit.
Has some intangible benefits: even if we head straight to Kwythellar, we're still getting good intel on TBS's territory.
Also, having a deal to provide TBS with a temple in the future would let me breathe a little easier about having centaurs for a neighbor.

Bulbing Currency: Actually, I think we can just bulb part of currency. 700 beakers or so. Value around 583 gold. But I still think it's a good tech to be researching now... I like the idea of swapping into Consumption.

I don't see a clear winner among the last three options.

[Merovech]

When is your next great person due, and what type/odds?

[HidingKneel]

When is your next great person due, and what type/odds?

Six or seven turns, 100% chance of Merchant.

Or do you mean after the merchant? In that case, no idea (we're not generating GPP anywhere except for The Money Bin).