picklepikkl embarks on the Fool's Journey

[picklepikkl]

Another in the series of "picklepikkl pokes at old game threads and finds interesting material":

Going for Monarchy through OR is a possibility, possibly getting Sailing first.

Going for currency after Maths is a possibility too.

I'm leaning Monarchy because the map is really happy starved. I have ivory as an early happy. There's 3 calendar resources, but only one is inside my settling plan (the others are distant and on bad land). And the one who is is below jungle, so i'd need IW too. There's also whales, but this is not RB Mod. Not good. Monarchy would give +1 happy from wines and at least +1 happy from the essential military police. That'd be perfect if we where assured to get a religion for + happy and OR, but once again that's not guaranteed.

In this scenario, Sailing would be teched to give a quick commerce boost through an island city.

Going currency first might be preferrable if we find more happy to the NW or E. After that, I'd go for Monarchy and try for a religion in CoL.

Another possibility, one which I only now realized, is forgoing Maths for quicker Monarchy. We have loads of forests to chop, but my current Micro plan doesn't involve that much chopping (well, especially because my best tries didn't go as far as Maths). But since we are EXP, we can live with subpar chops, since our granaries are fast anyway. We'd save the chops for later, perhaps getting a Wonder or something like that -> forests will always be worth it and what will hinder our expansion is not how fast we can get settlers/workers/granaries, but the actual costs of expanding.

But that begs the question: do we need such a fast Monarchy and so much early happy? Perhaps. I think we need to fast expand until we can get good cities up on those river valleys, which will be cottage cities. When that happens, we'll be broke, with less than 10 cities. In this case, monarchy seems like a better commerce investment than Currency, since currency will give us 20 commerce tops (considering 10 cities, which is optimistic, and 2 island cities, which is also optimistic), while Monarchy makes us grow into more cottages as needed.

But that also brings another question: it's almost assured that after Monarchy, i'll go currency and that after currency, I'll go Monarchy. So, what we need to know is: which of these gets us to the other faster and which of these benefits more from starting earlier? And, is there a first to bonus involved?

Monarchy has the advantage of being part of a first-to bonus, the religions in Poly and Mono (it also gets OR, but Currency gets Math). It also benefits more from starting earlier, since the currency bonus is "flat". Getting Monarchy earlier means working more tiles earlier and developing cities earlier. But the key question seems to be, which of these gets us to the other faster? I'm guessing currency, but is that bonus so substancial in order to surpass the benefits of Monarchy? I'm not sure.

My situation is not identical to Ichabod's, but by noticing the key ways in which it differs, I can draw conclusions by inference. Notably, I have slightly more happiness available. I don't believe I've seen whales or furs, but both ivory and gold are attainable within my first few cities, with gems more of a stretch (the latter two doubleable by Forges). However, I'm also not sure I've seen any islands (though I think they're out there), so I don't know if island cities for the bonus trade route income will be attainable. This is making me reconsider my tentative plan of a CoL beeline through Currency after Writing and Math (which I intend to follow my worker techs, possibly with Fishing/Sailing sprinkled in) -- certainly I'd like the religion and discount courthouses, but might the happiness to enable growing onto more cottages be more useful, especially if island cities are unfeasible? Given that I need to be REXing pretty hard to make my Organized trait worth what I paid for it, I need to be mindful about the most efficient ways to gain commerce and keep my economy from stalling completely.

[picklepikkl]

Big news for the turn: we met Sian!




Given the orientation of his scout, I'm going to tentatively assume that he is my western neighbor.

[picklepikkl]

The contacts are coming fast and furious: my eastern scout has found Jowy in the northeast.




Now is time for the sacred ritual of Realms Beyond: bitching about how your neighbor has better land than you! REM, how come Jowy can settle on the grass jungle and have three six-yield tiles, one of them 6f/1c, all in first ring? REM, I know the gems are an equal y-distance away from both of us, but how come I have significantly more x-distance to cross to contest them? REM, how come mom is never around? Is it because she didn't love me? Am I just unlovable? Is that why Jowy has nicer things than I do? Is that why you drink so much?

Anyway, joking aside, if Jowy's capital is there, then whoever is in the northwest should be in view of my western scout in a turn or two. If my deduction about Sian was correct, then I'll be meeting greenline. That would be a shame; the two experienced players would each be bordering inexperienced players, as opposed to sharing a border with each other. Diplo screen reveals that Jowy and Sian have yet to meet, which is weak evidence in favor of "they're not neighbors," I guess.

Also, at EOT, my Settler and AH research both finished. I will be founding The Magician on t23; hopefully that is a competitive date. NOTE TO SELF: REVOLT INTO SLAVERY NEXT TURN.

[picklepikkl]

Real busy turn! Despite my reminder to myself, I did not revolt into Slavery; I decided that since I had an extra turn of slack, I would finish the Warrior first (so that I can have, uh, any military) and revolt next turn.

First order of business: we did meet greenline in the northwest, completing our contacts list. Foreign adviser reveals that we are greenline's first contact, and that Jowy and Sian have now met each other.




Over in the northeast, a curious thing happened. Jowy's borders expanded and pushed our scout back, seemingly apropos of nothing; none of us are Creative, and Jowy is behind me in turn order, so why would he have been first to 100 culture?




There you have it, then. Jowy has detoured to found Buddhism in his capital. Interesting play! I haven't run demographics numbers to be sure, but I imagine that he skipped Mining/BW to get to religion. I wonder why he wanted it in his capital; it seems like trying to get it in your second city for the free culture is the more common play. Possibly for the sake of lots of multiplier buildings? In any event, the tragedy of his founding it this turn is that my plan to go scout his capital along the diagonal was thwarted. I ran up his border anyway, but this was probably a mistake; I suspect I should detour the scout back south and more thoroughly scout the terrain between me and Jowy.

The last thing I want to point out, and the most crucial: Animal Husbandry came out at the end of last turn. This turn I decided to go see where my horses were, and found the answer very interesting.




Take a look at that; the only horses in my quadrant are second-ring cities at best. Possibly there's another lurking just out of sight to my west, but that would be markedly different from the way copper has been distributed; it's readily available no matter which direction we choose to expand first. No, I think this is deliberate: REM has built us a map full of resources and with lack of early access to two-movers. We're playing on Big Game Hunters/no rush 20, and that's a really interesting choice! We might still get choked, so we can't entirely afford to neglect our military, but war chariots are unlikely to thunder down upon us from the north. The name of the game is peaceful expansion, and I hope I do a good job playing it.

[picklepikkl]

Uneventful turn. Got visibility on greenline's capital. Top Cities revealed that Sian is the first to 2 cities; I will be right behind next turn. Speaking of which, I remembered to revolt to Slavery this turn, so pat on the back for me. I've decided to bring my scouts back, to more thoroughly scout for city sites now that contact has been made.

Need to do some simming and figure out where to go from here. Third worker? Grow on MP warriors and whip out a second settler? Our tech path has put us like 10t from granaries and cottages, alas, since we still need to research the Wheel and Pottery. I think I have to leverage my early BW and do a lot of chopping to support REX; with what I paid for my ORG trait, I'd better do my best to lead in cities and make it worth it.

Should figure out where The High Priestess will go. Gavagai's earlier suggestion of 9966, the river grass with first ring dry grass wheat/plains river ivory/grass copper, has a lot of obvious merit. There's also a spot that should probably wait for Fishing/Sailing 66663 from the capital; first ring lighthouseable forest lake (3/1/3 tile!), grass cow, farmable bananas, and tundra gold, with the ice gold reachable after border expansion. Possibly the gold/bananas/cows makes it worth settling even before I get the seafaring techs, especially since it doesn't actually have BFC seafood. 777, while rejected for The Magician, will make a better option after The Fool has cottages to work and wants to stagnate at a higher size, since it can take the corn in addition to its native cows.

...clearly I don't want to sim, I just want to think out loud

[picklepikkl]

Founded this turn; trade screens show that nobody else founded on t22, so we are second to two cities!



City 1: The Magician

The Magician is the first teacher the Fool encounters along their journey. On the table, the Magician has the four Minor Arcana, demonstrating that he has mastered the lessons and power of those archetypes. (This is actually quite appropriate for the city we ended up founding, because in its BFC will be all three types of resources: health, luxury, and strategic.) The Magician teaches the Fool about the lesser mysteries, but also is an object lesson of the power of activity: he doesn't just faff about, but takes steps to realize his dreams in reality. It won't be enough to simply have cool ideas and a grand plan for my civilization: I need to play with follow-through.

In non-esoteric news, I decided to let The Fool grow to size 3 on a 1t Scout to poke around in my west. Three Scouts may have been excessive, but I really want more information on the land between me and Sian. Besides, with my three scouts each in the land connecting me to one of my rivals, I have pickets for any incoming attack (and I'm in Slavery). Though if someone comes at me with axes, I guess I just lose? ...Thinking about that is making me really want to connect strategic resources soon, even though Soldiers indicates that I'm safe for now.

[picklepikkl]

Had nothing to do tonight, so I updated my sandbox to reflect more of my exploration and messed around simming. I found a path that had me founding The High Priestess on t34 with the benefit of being preroaded, along with a total of four workers and three warriors. Third city around then seems par for the course in other BTS-quick games I've read reports from, so I feel good about that for a preliminary goal. Let's see if I can micro that for greater efficacy; figuring out what I should be whipping, and when, is a major question I need to answer.

[picklepikkl]

Quiet turn. Remembered to turn research back on for The Wheel. Remembered to swap The Fool onto my newly farmed corn. Remembered to check the diplo screen (contact situation remains the same, greenline and Jowy still haven't founded a second city, I'm the only one in Slavery). Nothing worth mentioning, apart from that.

[picklepikkl]

Super-quick midday turn roll! Was not expecting that.

Sian showed up in the northwest, but borders expanded, so he's locked out unless he declares war. If he declares war and passes through, I'm OK with that. If he declares war and camps my corn... I am not OK with that.

Meanwhile, the demographics are really depressing. Everyone else seems to have beelined Pottery to get those cottages on the go, and I'm super behind in GNP vs everyone. Possibly that's in part because I'm researching a zero-prereq tech, but falling behind this early is not great. At least I'm going to look better in CY+MFG in a few turns with 4 improved tiles.

[picklepikkl]

So yesterday I was unable to replicate my micro plan of the day before, and was really kicking myself. That, coupled with my crappy demographics, made me feel really down about the game; I'm both a perfectionist and fairly competitive, so even though I've been trying to keep my expectations low so that I can have fun and approach this as a learning experience, I still feel it like a hammer in the head when I realize I've screwed up.

Today, though, after I got the turn and checked to make sure Sian wasn't camping my corn (he isn't; he declared war, passed through, and offered a cease fire), I went into my sandbox to see what else I could do. And I discovered a better path! Here's the plan: 1pop whip The Fool this turn, even though it was about to finish the worker anyway, then build two 1t warriors with the overflow while growing to size 3, then settler working three improved tiles (corn farm, deer camp, phm), which takes only four turns with a chop. Workers at the capital, meanwhile, road to the site of The High Priestess while the warriors cover the region (I'm sending both warriors to the site because I know people have been building more warriors than I have, so I want to be safe against scouting opportunists). The upshot is that I still found on t34 with a worker in place to begin immediate farming of the wheat, but with an extra warrior, which makes me feel much safer. Still not sure what I should be doing with The Magician after the warrior finishes slowbuilding (worker into 1pop whip into granary? grow to size 4 into 2pop whip worker into granary? grow to size 4, worker, 2pop whip granary?), so I need to play around with that, but knowing what's going on with The Fool and the worker labor around there is great.

So I popped back into the real save and performed my first whip of the game!

Interlude:

This city is afraid of me. I've seen its true face. The streets are extended storehouses and the storehouses are full of food. And when the box finally fills up, all the population will be converted to hammers. The accumulated conversion of all their maize and venison will climb up around their waists and all the farmers and hunters will look up and shout "We've been whipped enough!" ...and I'll look down and whisper "no."

And then whip them again.

Apart from that, not much to report. Still no second city from Jowy/greenline. Still greenline's only contact. Still no Slavery from anyone. I forgot to check on what's going on with my espionage; I know I set all my points to go into Sian, but I don't know how many I have yet (espionage is a weird system I don't fully understand). We founded a turn after Sian, but we're beating his city to size 2, which makes me feel good. I might do another demographics roundup later today or tomorrow, if I'm bored with nothing better to do.