[Spoilers] This Perfect Place

[Mr. Cairo]

Copper appeared on the plains hill 2N of the sheep in my cap. I need to know if there's any seafood on that coast, because if there isn't, it makes a pretty terrible city. This is really annoying, since I wanted to at least have copper hooked up before my third city, but now that doesn't seem likely. Since my third settler (for my fourth city) comes out so quickly after my second settler, I'm thinking I'll send that settler up to the copper. There'll be workers nearby as well to hook it up fast. Since I'm without copper for longer than I had originally planned, I may have to go for archery earlier, just in case. Either before the wheel, if I find that I can't build any roads to speed up the settler moving to the 3rd city spot, or before Agriculture, since the workers around the cap will be too busy hooking up the copper to build that farm.

I'll do a proper report with pics and sims in a day or so.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Remember the map has been more or less hand made, and one of the most basic balances they do is ensuring that coppers/horses are accessible in the same way to all!

[Mr. Cairo]

Yeah, I know, but I was just hoping that it would appear where I already was planning on building a city soon

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Yeah, I know, but I was just hoping that it would appear where I already was planning on building a city soon

So the plan is copper city 3 now?

[Mr. Cairo]

If by city three you mean the third city after the capital, then yes. I still want to plant next to the sheep and oasis with my second settler, but if Gawdzak is also in the area and I don't think I can hold it with warriors/archers, I may have to go get copper first, but then of course I might end up losing the spot. Losing my scout has really sucked in that regard, I had been relying on the information it would give me about what Gawdzak is up to.

[Mr. Cairo]

So micro plan has not changed, just add a turn to everything because I forgot to account for slavery switch last time. Not necessary but I still want to have the option available if I need it. So city 3 (Memory of Trees) gets planted at the ph site by the oasis and ivory on T46 with two warriors protecting it, another on the way, and the ability to make an archer right out of the gate, since I'm going to get archery before I get agriculture. It's only 3 turns, and I don't need agriculture right away.


The fourth city (Aniron) will be towards the copper:


As you can see, there'll already be a warrior in place, the two workers can make a road while the settler is traveling to one of two possible sites: either the grasslands hill if there's seafood in the area, or the grassland with the pigs in second ring. But I'm pretty sure there'll be seafood out there. The warrior and my borders will let me know about potential animals so I'll know whether the warrior needs to protect the workers or the settler, although it's possible I'll have the workers instead put a turn into mining those two hills by the cap instead of moving towards the copper. The copper is on a river after all and doesn't need a road. The workers can then move onto the copper the same time the settler is moving and start the mine as soon as the city is founded.

In the south, Anywhere Is and Wild Child both build a worker at size three.


I am loathe to have my citizens working unimproved tiles, so expect a lot of workers early on, both to improve tiles faster and to keep the cities from growing. The worker from the cap will mine the hill SW so that AI has another tile to work at size 4 (the cap has the whales at size 4) and the one from AI will start a road towards the ivory (which also brings copper into MoT). Then AI will builds a barracks, while WC will probably build a spearman, in case Gawdzak rushes for Immortals.

I'll be sticking with break-even research for now, once I get pottery I may start min-maxing while I get my cottages going.

With the whales hooked, followed by the ivory, my plan is to have AI and WC hit the happy cap and stay there, with WC building settlers/workers and AI building units to protect them. The other cities will focus on food and commerce, and will probably be 1-pop whipped regularly for infra and the occasional unit. I never was a huge fan of whipping, and since it's been nerfed slightly in this mod, I plan on having my cities hit their happy caps early, and once they have enough improved tiles around them, staying there. Whipping is most useful at the beginning of a city's life, and during war.

After this I'll be focusing on settling as much of the south as I can, there's not much to my north anyway, and my only neighbor is to the south. My current dotmap (http://i.imgur.com/mrexBT3.jpg) is still valid (except for black, which will depend on where the copper city ends up), but once I know more I'll update it.

One thing to note is that I missed an optimization opportunity: If this turn (the turn before the first settler finishes) I had worked the whales tile, I'd have one extra commerce, which would be enough to finish both AH and the Wheel a turn earlier without effecting the worker that comes after the settler. It doesn't matter that much, since I don't use those techs until a couple of turns after they finish, but it is an example of the sort of thing I need to look out for a lot more as the game progresses, and in future games.

[Mr. Cairo]

Re: that last bit about working the whales last turn; as it happens, I can work the whales tile during construction of the worker right now, without losing any turns in the micro, and gaining some extra commerce, so that's what I've done. I also switched to slavery this turn, telling Gawdzak that I have BW and a settler out.

Now I have a question for lurkers about score. From what I have read, score for land tiles only gets added after 10 turns of control. Is this correct? If so, it would mean that me planting the city would only give me a score increase for the extra population. Or is there any other score increase related to founding a city?

[OT4E]

Now I have a question for lurkers about score. From what I have read, score for land tiles only gets added after 10 turns of control. Is this correct? If so, it would mean that me planting the city would only give me a score increase for the extra population. Or is there any other score increase related to founding a city?

After 20 turns.
There is no other score increase in the turn you found a city except for just 1 pop. But it is increased during your turn so it is pretty easy ro track using civstats.

[Mr. Cairo]

After 20 turns.
There is no other score increase in the turn you found a city except for just 1 pop. But it is increased during your turn so it is pretty easy ro track using civstats.

Thanks, good to know.


Settler has reached city spot, protected by a warrior. There is a wolf two tiles away, which can attack the warrior, which is on a hill and with 1 turn's fortify bonus. Which begs the question: is this game "casual" enough to allow a reload if one's first settler is killed due to an astronomically unlikely barb combat victory? Since losing that settler would basically force me out of the game, and wouldn't be fun for anyone at all.


Also, I can't move the warrior 1NW to guarantee the settler's survival because the tile 2S of the warrior is in fog and I know that there's a panther in that area.

[Mr. Cairo]

I wasn't aware that combat odds could ever be actual zero. Is there some threshold at which the odds become zero? Or is it unique to animals/barbs?