Commodore David the Fifth of the horsie dudes.

[DaveV]

And we should put a password on the game. Not because we don't trust the other players (there are lots of other, and probably better, ways to cheat), but just to avoid someone else opening it accidentally.

[Commodore]

Played per your instructions, sent on to the tracker.

Danke Dave, I don't suppose you got a free golden age event or something? I hear that happens. Ah well, same old, same old. I'll set password to "Homeworld" based on the theme in a couple weeks when the next turn rolls around.

I did do a little sim yesterday, just trying out how the tech path of Crafting -> Calendar -> Mining -> Exploration felt...which was dang slow to my BTS reflexes. At turn 28 I hit the wines-boosted happy cap and could make either a settler or a second worker (after exploration+gold road, a PH mine can be added at size 7 to really rock those settlers out).

Here's the capital's setup once gold comes online on t29:



And here's ye olde demos:



I lack any point of reference here, is this a good setup? One thing is clear, mining second slows down growth a lot at the capital here, but maybe size four, working Oasis, winery, PH mine, and gold mine while pumping settlers might be better. In a couple turns we'll know the local area better for sim purposes.

[DaveV]

I took the liberty of playing turn 8, since it was sitting in my inbox and the FfH14 save wasn't.

Lizzie east reveals that the whales city is ridiculous. Warrior had to choose between southwest and southeast; chose southwest.



And I forgot to set the password

[Commodore]

Lizzie east reveals that the whales city is ridiculous. Warrior had to choose between southwest and southeast; chose southwest.

Yeesh, that's another amazing spot with high-commerce specials and no food bonuses. I'd almost say someone was trying to nerf Aristogarianism.

The Mining next->stagnate at size 4 pumping settlers (and workers) -> Exploration -> Hunting path is looking nicer to my intuition, but I mistrust it for FFH. Need to simulate the two options, I think.

[DaveV]

Apparently there wasn't any need for me to cut in line in front of you, since the save is still sitting in the team spamalot mailbox. It must have hit their team at a bad time.

But, yeah. Analysis on mining vs. calendar is a priority, since we need a decision next turn.

[Commodore]

Okay, so again there ain't a turn, so that's a bummer. But I ran a quick and dirty sim to turn 28, one less than before...this time, going Crafting->Mining->Exploration->Hunting.

The outcome was, um, slightly better.





Yeah, that's two workers, and six turns until the first settler, who will be able to run to his city spot along roads for an instant trade route, and have the deer encamped in two turns upon settling. Sooo much stronger.

The timings work out nicely for this route, too, with the farm completing just in time to help the city grow on turn 19, to get to size 4 the same time the gold mine finishes.



Then at size four while the worker makes that plains hill mine the city builds a second worker, very much needed for all the mining and camping going on in this setup.



Finally, the worker finishes the same time as the mine so the city can go to pure hammers for the Exp settler build, all the while racing up the tech tree too. Way of the Forests is a possibility for culture/eventual food if needed.



Either way, this is massively stronger than growth to size six/seven on 4 food farms. Like, impressively so.

[Commodore]

Played, nothing too amazing happening...although I once again forgot to set a password.

Looking through the dungeon, I find a healing salve, which is about as meh a result as you can get. Ever some minor bad stuff would have at least given me XP, as a Gurilla I lizzard on a hill can do some harm. The site is more nuts than ever, with furs adding to the appeal.



But what's that up north? Pigs to feed a city? Oh, and also ruins on the far side of the vines?



That'll be fun next turn, hopefully now lizzards spawn in the interim.

[HidingKneel]

Looks like the mapmaker really wants to encourage us towards hunting.

I'm not sure what FoL will buy us. If we need food, turning those riverside forests into farms will be better than turning them ancient.
If we want to pick up one of the early religions after hitting mysticism,
I'd go for RoK. We'll have the prereqs for that too, and it synergizes well with almost every civ; FoL doesn't have much synergy unless you're playing as elves.

Your plan looks solid (counterintuitive to me that it beats farming, but I've never simmed it out or crunched numbers). Second city at the whale site?

[Commodore]

Your plan looks solid (counterintuitive to me that it beats farming, but I've never simmed it out or crunched numbers). Second city at the whale site?

Well, I stopped it as I was building the settler because I've been busy and it takes a bit to move the sim around to our current map knowledge. My guts says the deer/village/mines/ivory sight north is a better second city than whales, although both are definitely high priority sites. I have the first three expansion cities marked with names on the map now.

Our area is about as tight as I expected, Triikor found fallout and forgot his healing salve this turn, nothing new or cool seen here. He'll head out-vine too next, by way of healing salve.



The warrior found nothing down at Southshore, but Fiirkan found both seafood, spider, and another salve up north. City 1N of pigs, anyone? That's a crap-ton of farms too if wanted, although Bronze Working is needed to make the place worth anything for production.



Demos ain't looking good still, but it's yet early. Let's see how things are once we push out a pair of fast settlers.



Up to an great 2turns/3days rate!

[DaveV]

Healing salves are better than getting Plagued or something, but no cause for a party.

Would it be worth building a few fogbusting warriors to keep the barbs out of our safe zone?

Did you find any seafood offshore?