Mmm, dotmaps. 
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[SPOILERS] Cornflakes Returns to Civ 4: Forget 1UPT, STACK OF DOOM!!!!!
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T25: I'm reconsidering the 4k power increase last turn. Rival best is now 19k and Elkad's power graph shows 4k soldiers increase T23. I am therefore revising Elkad to discovering The Wheel T23. Power increased another 4k this turn so I'm giving warriors to Wetbandit + BGN now. Land points were credited to all non-CRE rivals but I was the only one to get any additional score increase from discovering Bronze Working and growing to Pop 4 ... drumroll please ... where's the copper?
Bingo! Right on the all-but-certain 2nd city site YELLOW dot (no other copper in sight). I'm perfectly happy to settle on top of the copper for the 2 hammer city center and un-pillage-able copper. I think the +1 hammer on the city center tile (available immediately and doesn't require a pop to work) is equivalent to the +2 hammers copper would provide if worked as a mine. Note the barb lion in the top-right. Wish me luck in either lion movement or combat rolls! If I have to right I'd much prefer the defensive bonus from the forest hill rather than the bare hill city center tile. Settler started in the capital, and with Bronze Working in I adopted slavery with the free civics swap and started chopping the forest that the worker is on. I chose this flatland forest since I'm planning to move the worker up to the 2nd city before mining any of the capital's hills. Removing the forest will make it easier to put a road here in the future without wasting a worker turn moving onto the forest.
T26: Elkad grows to size 4, JR4 and Superdeath discover Bronze Working. BGN is the only rival without BW now and he should be getting it next turn. Overall an eerily similar start across the field. I would expect to see the imperialistic rivals (DZ & BGN) planting their 2nd cities soon. My ETA is 5 turns for 2nd city, assuming no catastrophic barb or neighbor intervention. Elkad at size 4 could be planning to whip his settler like me but he still hasn't revolted to slavery, at least according to the graphs (I haven't checked the event log for 10+)
The lion moved south. I fortified Quechua in place. I have a couple turns to be patient and wait for the lion to approach and attack. Scout moved east and will provide additional support and vision. My plan if the lion doesn't attack is to keep the Q fortified until the settler is ready to move onto YELLOW dot. The scout will dance around and keep an eye on things as much as possible. Then if the lion still has not attacked I will move the Q + Scout + Settler all onto YELLOW at once. Worst case the lion is adjacent and attacks and kills the Q, but once the city is founded the lion will exit culture instead of continuing to attack.
T27: The plot thickens ...
JR4's Aztec warrior appears to my southeast. The colored lines indicate moves on the respective turns (with me first in turn order). My scout will be able to reach the capital before JR4's warrior. I proceed with the scheduled chop in to the settler bringing it to 59/100. I have 2 options here (1) complete the warrior before the settler, delaying settler 1 turn so that JR4 will see the warrior on the turn he makes YELLOW move (before entering my territory). Or (2) whip the settler on schedule next turn and overflow into a warrior EOT after JR4 makes yellow, with enough overflow from that Q to complete a 2nd Q on the following turn. JR4's warrior will have 10% odds in either case. In option 1 I will also have enough overflow from the settler to complete a 1-turn 2nd Q so in that regard they both get the 2nd Q on the same turn. With option (2) even if I lose the first Q's 90% battle, the scout will prevent the city from being captured. And my 2nd Q will be completed and able to kill JR4's warrior before it has a chance to promote with the oodles of XP it would earn from a low-odds win. Only way this goes south is if I lose a 90% roll doing minimal damage to the attacker, and then lose a decent-to-excellent odds attack on JR4's victorious scout (and this would be the case whether I go with option 1 or 2). Even in that case I will have founded my 2nd city on copper by that time and should be able to make JR4's final conquest very painful. Oh look, BGN just rolled T28 ... let's see what the future looks like: JR4's warrior has disappeared. +1 relations for friendly posturing. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say he turns the warrior homeward bound for safety. I proceed with 2-pop whip of my settler. On T27 DZ whipped 1 pop for the first whip of the game (presumably for his IMP settler) just one turn ahead of me. No other score increases but pop went up 2k. I'm penciling in either JR4 for a 2nd warrior since his first is so far from home, or Wetbandit as the other pop 4 rival. Since JR4 didn't move in a threatening manner and the barb lion was out of vision, I advanced my scout forward 1N spotting the lion on the hill. I decided to move the scout onto the GFH 1N of the warrior to keep within 3 turns of my capital if JR4's warrior shows up again. Also this gives me the option to move the scout a further 1N onto the other PFH if the lion moves 1W or 1SW. That would give my scout 89% odds on defense, and the diversion of the lion for a turn will give the settler enough time to plant city #2. My worker advanced to the hill 1W of YELLOW dot. I'll put 2 pre-chops into that forest and then start farming the wheat once the city is founded. I'm planning to put that chop into the Terrace. But with copper revealed it might make sense to send the chop through an axe > whip > overflow into Terrace. Barb warriors are going to start appearing soon. Also my NE neighbor could still be DZ's impi. Spears are not yet unlocked until I get hunting. Immediate whip of the first pop growth makes sense because I will not yet have a 2nd improved tile to work.
T29: DZ founded 2nd city this turn (before I played), with only 1.5 turns of movement his 2nd city is 3 tiles from his capital. There was a 6k total rival power increase and both DZ and Webtandit appear to have researched a 7-turn tech. Wetbandit has much higher GNP due to lake, so I'm giving him Wheel. I'm giving Fishing to DZ although that only works at 7-turns if he had almost no overflow from BW and was working non-riverside tiles (seems like a safe assumption as IMP working a hammer tile while building a settler). I'm penciling in DZ to be overflowing from settler whip into a workboat. The extra 2k power could in theory belongs to anybody except rival-best Elkad. I'm penciling in Wetbandit for the 2nd warrior since he grew to size 4. I assume Wetbandit will be 2-pop whipping a settler shortly (likely next turn or the turn after).
Fraidy cat lion kept his distance from YELLOW dot, no complaints from me Overall I have been fortunate with animals this game. Settler is in motion, founding on T31. Scout uncovered a couple more tiles include Marble for my northeast rival. Scout remains within 3 turns range of the capital which will give me enough time to produce 2 Quechua before any potential warrior of opportunity could make 2 attacks on the capital (as described above). I will probably produce an axe first at YELLOW with the intent to whip > overflow + chop the Terrace. Settler overflow combined with this turn's production is enough to put 30 hammers into the worker, putting it within range of another 1-pop whip. It will take 3 turns to grow to size 3, and then I will whip the worker. Stacked anger is fine now at this low size and I only have 2 improved tiles to work so let's turn 26 food into 30 hammers. Overflow can easily complete the half-finished Quechua and I'll probably follow up with at least one more Q to explore/spawn-bust.
We are all the way up to turn 34 now. I founded 2nd city on T31, as did JR4. Wetbandit founded on T32. Elkad whipped 1 pop from 5 > 4 on T31 so should be founding shortly. I am not doing detailed demographics tracking anymore. Too much going on in the world (and also I have more to do and think about than just moving a scout and hitting enter
 ). Here's the current status:DZ's scout met from the Elkad's direction from the northwest side of the freshwater lake. DZ's scout then disappeared back into the fog so I don't quite know what to make of that as confirmation whether he came from the northeast or further west. My thought is that if he came from the west, the logical thing to do would be to bounce north around that freshwater lake and see who was beyond Elkad and I, while if he came from the northeast the logical think would be to loop down and scout me out more as his immediate neighbor. I'm currently proceeding under the assumption that I could have Impi prowling the northeastern border in the near future, although I think it more likely that DZ is located beyond Elkad to the west/northwest. Superdeath's scout just met me from the southeast, likely west of JR4, and south-southwest of me along the sea. My scout is going to poke around the marble looking for a suitable city site. I circled my two workers. PINK will be finished with the wheat farm next turn and will then start the road back to the capital (worth 2 commerce). GREEN was just built and will start chopping next turn. I'm think now that I'll build a mine as well, but may skip the mine for now depending on whether I think I'll be working it much or not. GREEN is also slated to build the last road to Cambrian Explosion, while PINK goes on to either chop or mine or cottage at Cambrian. Great Unconformity finishes a Quechua this turn and will have 11 overflow into the next (2 turns to complete). The 2nd Q corresponds exactly with growth to size 3 and the GREEN chop coming in. I'll probably put that chop into a settler but might get a 3rd worker first instead. I'm going to have many early luxuries available to grow-grow-grow so I will need improvements-improvements-improvements. The more I think about it, the more a 3rd worker sounds best before the settler. Capital's border pop will pick up Silver T50, and Cambrian's Terrace will pop borders to pick up Gold shortly after. I can start getting cottages down while having a worker ready to immediately support City #3. Cambrian Explosion will whip the axe once Pottery completed so that I can put the overflow into the Terrace. At that point I'll chop the forest 1W of Cambrian into the terrace as well (already pre-chopped twice). So the plan is Axe > Terrace > [grow on spear > settler?] OR [grow on a couple of Q's to fogbust > Settler?]
T37: A quick city overview ...
Starting with the capital Great Unconformity ... I just grew back to size 3 this turn. I am putting the chop into the worker which will bring it to 32/60 along with natural production. One whip anger wears off end of turn and I'm planning to whip again (3rd whip, 4th pop in 10 turns). With only 2 improved tiles I feel this is the best use of population at this point even without the Terrace yet. By the time I regrow to 3 again I'll have a mine completed for the 3rd pop to work and shortly afterwards I'll have cottages popping up. I decided to go worker first for a couple of reasons. (1) I need a lot of labor to build cottages, mine silver/gold, build roads between cities and silver/gold, and eventually improve 3rd city. (2) The chop + natural production works out perfectly with a whip next turn. I felt this was the best way to leverage the chop + whip. (3) I'm still light on military to protect another city. Overflow from the worker will be enough to complete a Quechua ... or half a workboat. Do I need another workboat? I'm not going to have an improve-able sea resource until border pop at my 4th or 5th city. Is that western sea worth exploring at this point, compared to having a 4th Quechua in the field? No, I'm building a Q. Cambrian Explosion ... the sudden appearance in the fossil record of complex animals with mineralized skeletal remains. An explosion of diversity of life. I started the axeman as mentioned with the intent to whip once pottery was completed in order to overflow into the Terrace, and that is still the plan. Combined with the chop I'll be within a couple turns of completing the terrace. Terrace will pop borders and pick up the gold + furs. I'll let Cambrian grow to the happy cap, and then probably stagnate working gold for the commerce, three grass hill for production, and as many riverside cottages as I can at the happy cap. The big question I've been pondering is: What do I build while growing after the Terrace? I could build more military, but axe and 4 Q's should be enough for present. A spear wouldn't hurt but after that? I am considering putting "extra" production into Stonehenge for failgold when I'm not building workers or settlers and don't need military. Here's an overview shot of the south: I'm treading lightly down there due to a bear spotted on T36. I will step forward verrrrry gingerly, especially since there will likely be barb warriors appearing any turn as well. No seafood in the south unfortunately. A city between copper and marble will have decent production, with a filler 1E of clams. 1NW of copper is another option but that has no 1st ring food and just looks ugly. I'm planning to expand north first so I'll hold off on drawing dots in the south until I explore the area a bit more and confirm JR4 and Superdeath's locations.
T38: Donovan plants city #3 this turn. I also locate what must be Donovan's city #2 as the borders have popped. It's close enough that I actually could have spotted the tile 1E of my Q a couple turns ago with the culture overlay if I had been more thorough.
DZ's worker is building a road there. That is either preparation for an impi rush, or his copper is located 2nd ring as marked, or both. If that worker is still around next turn I'll have a hard time resisting the temptation to snipe it. Pottery completes at end of turn with the exact amount of commerce required. Cambrian has been working the riverside grassland for the extra commerce to make that happen. If I had whipped Cambrian's axe this turn it would have slowed pottery to 2 turns ruining the overflow into Terrace plan. So I'll whip next turn and overflow 29 hammers into the terrace plus add the chop for 49/60 hammers. After two turns of +3/turn (55/60) I'll grow onto the forest hill and complete the terrace with the exact hammer count 60/60. Border pop will be EOT54 so the plan will be to have Gold roaded that turn with 2 workers ready to mine it.
T43: Time for a worker micro plan
I decided to build a 4th worker at Great Unconformity before settler for 3rd city. My reasoning is that the settler would found the city a couple of turns before Hunting comes in to improve the Sheep. By slipping in a 4th worker I'll have enough worker turns to road to PURPLE (saving a turn of travel on the settler), and with the extra worker I'll be able to double them up pasturing the Sheep making up a couple turns there as well. Also thanks to the extra worker turns I'll have 3 cottages at the capital AND 5 improvements at Cambrian including the gold mine. I'll then be able to crank out settlers everywhere at the happy cap and peel off existing workers to support them. ORANGE is the new worker which will be completing EOT44 with 2 chops, YELLOW, PINK and BLUE are existing workers. Great Unconformity will put the overflow from the worker into Settler (45/100) on T45. It will then take 3 turns growing to size 4 in sync with loosing a whip anger, EOT48. At size 4 making 14 Food-Hammers it will take 4 turns to finish the settler, EOT52. On T53 I'll have two workers road the tile 1SE of PURPLE, ready to move through the city upon founding T54 and pasture the sheep together. Am I emphasizing improvements too much at the expense of expansion for this early in the game? My thought it that with all the happiness resources around it is better to start improving and growing early. Gold will be connected T57, Furs about 5 turns later, then Silver in another 5 turns, and probably Ivory 5 turns after that. With cottages growing early and Furs + Gold + Silver fueling the economy I should be able to keep up a steady research pace along with expansion. I should be able to unlock Forges right at the edge of peaceful expansion. From there I can assess the neighborhood situation and arm up to pounce on a weak neighbor, or start chasing wonders.
Demographics are looking weak at this point due primarily to my aggressive whipping. Over the next 15 turns I expect to close the gap as I get 3rd city down, improvements up and running, and grow all cities. 15 turns after that I should be towards the top in all categories as my happiness resources allow me grow vertically and my emphasis on improved tiles starts paying dividends. By T75 (32 turns from now) I want to be #1 or #2 in all of GNP/MFG/Food. I think I can have 6 cities by T75 if I push.
7th place GNP is fine for now. Research is currently set to Hunting with no arrow-bonuses. GNP will be fixed as cottages start maturing, and furs + gold + silver resources. I expect to be pushing middle of the pack in 15, 1st in 30. 3rd place MFG will probably stay about the same. I will be adding 4 mines over the next 15 turns but I expect IMP/EXP to continue emphasizing hammers. 6th place Food is concerning. It will be mitigated somewhat in the next 15 turns by floodplains and sheep, but offset to the negative by mines (desert gold specifically). I expect to remain towards the lower-middle of the pack in the 15 turn time horizon, and start clawing upwards over the following 15 turns as I start to benefit from higher population due to luxuries and early terraces. Notably the terrace completing at Cambrian next turn will be a silent +4 food as long as I'm growing. Rival best soldier count is a little confusing. The only early power techs I'm missing are Hunting (2k), Archery (6k), and Animal Husbandry (2k). I settled on Copper and built an axe straight away at 2nd city, yet I am 7k below rival best. With no AGG trait it seems too early for Barracks. Is Donovan really going for an Impi rush? Did someone research Archery early (6k)? From a development perspective I'm questioning my decision to build the axe, surely additional military power is worse for someone's development. The only thing that makes sense to me is that someone rushed to Archery for security. I lost JR4's graphs for now. I'm at 30 EP into both JR4 and DZ but I'm going to secure DZ's Impi-toting Zulu before picking up JR4 again, given that I found Superdeath closer than JR4. Here's a look at the military advisor: I also pasted in the unit support tooltip from the financial advisor. Note that the next unit I build will increase unit costs. I am 1 over the free limit now. According to https://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strateg...explained/ the handicap is 20% of the cost on Emperor difficulty, but rounded up so the first unit over the limit is always covered by the handicap, and every 5th unit from there. The only way to increase the free units are population (0.24*total_pop) or Vassalage. Therefore I get approximately 1 free unit support for every 4 pop. Ouch! I'll need to be cost-conscious when building units. The worker finishing at the capital next turn will bump up my costs by 1 unless I disband something (which isn't going to happen)  Here is a satellite-view map stitch with cultural overlay: My scout found Superdeath to the south with 3 cities as marked. Looks like EXP is about as quick to 3rd city as Superdeath was only 1 turn slower with the 3rd than IMP Donovan. I was expecting to find JR4 where Superdeath is located, so the Aztecs must be further east. From Elkad's capital in the north to Superdeath's capital in the south there are 27 horizontal rows [inclusive] out of 34 total. Therefore Superdeath also neighbors Elkad and DZ across the N/S wrap. My scout is headed around the lake to find JR4 now and will continue onward to locate BGN and Wetbandit as long as barbs are cooperative. Now that I have a decent military and pop to whip in an emergency I'm throwing caution to the wind with the scout and forging valiantly rashly ahead. |