[Spoilers] This Perfect Place

[Mr. Cairo]

Turn 31 Situation Report:

Firstly, I feel like a massive idiot for forgetting about espionage. Me and Gawdzak are not alone on this landmass, since he's clearly been putting some espionage into another player: our current ratio is 80(me):53(him). That is good news I think, since Gawdzak must be between me and the other player, so I only have to worry about one neighbor, while Gawdzak has to worry about (at least) two.

Secondly, I really should have been keeping track of score changes on a piece of paper or a text file or something, but it's a bit late to start now probably. In any case I don't remember seeing a score change during a turn yet, so I'm confident that I'm the first to a second city . I'm assuming this is because of the prevailing strategy around here of getting two workers before the settler. I'll go into more detail on this later.

On to the report:
Overview shot:


Here is my empire. Wild Child will grow to size 3 and build 2 settlers while working the mine, sheep, and deer. That sign on the mine is wrong: the hill 1S of Anywhere Is will be mined by the time the city grows, and WC will want the mine by then. The worker 2 chop will go into AI and finish the worker there. That worker (3) and worker 2 will camp the deer then go and chop all 4 of the forests to WC's north into the two settlers.

Wild Child:


It will take that mine back while building those two settlers, then return it to AI. With the sheep, wheat, deer, whales, and some mines/cottages, this city is looking pretty good at the happy cap.

Anywhere Is:


Will eventually be working all the hills in its BFG plus the pigs to be my main hammer city early on, with plenty of cottage potential later on.

Gawdzak:


Nothing much to report here, pretty sure he went for that second worker before settler, so I've managed to beat him to a second city by a couple of turns (and counting).

Demographics:


Pretty good I think, clearly a result of getting my second city down first. There's not much to really take from these numbers so early on, but I'll comment on the relevant ones nevertheless.
1st in GNP, despite not being CRE. I like this, my style tends to favour hammers over commerce early on, so being on top now is a good sign that I'm not already starting to fall behind there.
2nd in MFG, behind by 1 but still well above the average.
Tied for 1st in CY, but that's pretty even across the board with only a difference of 2 between top and bottom. But the fact that the average is 10 indicates that the majority of the players have 10 food, so being at 12 is still stayng ahead of the pack.
7th in Soldiers, not much to say about this right now
1st in Land Area, hardly surprising given my second city, but interesting to see that I'm not that far ahead of the rival best, indicating that some players had a landlocked start (since I'm pretty sure that everyone SIP)
4th in population, that really high (relatively speaking) rival best will become clear on with the next screenshot, but I think that most other players have a size 2 cap only atm.

Top 5 cities:


So one size 4 cap, two size 3 caps, and the rest size 2. That size 4 cap can really only mean that someone had a (double perhaps) seafood start that let them grow up fast before needing a worker. I like the fact that the starts, while clearly customized and balanced to a large degree, aren't identical across the entire world. While mine and Gawdzak's (and Gawdzak's other neighbor?) have mirrored starts on this landmass, other landmasses must have different mirrored starts, maybe with luxury resources unique to that area, to encourage monopolies trade.


I have graphs on Gawdzak, but there's nothing there of note, except a big spike in power that we both had at the same time which I'm pretty sure was BW. My GDP, CY, and MFG graphs are all over the place because of switching between the whales lake and the mine, which he can't do since he doesn't have fishing.

Not much more to say, just got to stick to the micro plan and I'll have Memory of Trees planted in a dozen turns or so, with Aniron to follow just a few turns later. Then I suppose I'd have to make a new micro plan; I think though I'd want to get horses for a scouting chariot or two pretty quick. I'll know where they are in a couple of turns.

Any questions, send them my way. Strategy post about getting 2 workers before the settler to follow.

[Mr. Cairo]

Ok, not going to beat around the bush here: I think that that going worker-worker-settler is just straight up worse than worker-settler-worker.

To explain my reasoning, I'll start with discussing how workers actually contribute to a civ's economy. They do this in two ways: the first is they improve the F/H/C yields of tiles, which are then worked by the citizens of your cities. The second is through chopping. The first lasts forever (sort of), the second is a one-off boost of hammers only.

So, what this means is that improving tiles is only worthwhile (from a F/H/C/ perspective) if there are citizens to work them. Most of the time, when you build that second worker before the settler, there are no more tiles around the cap to improve that can actually be worked, so the only thing that worker can do is chop (assuming that you went for a worker tech [hunting/agriculture] followed by BW).

But, not only is chopping the only thing that worker can do, it needs to chop, to justify its own existence. The settler needs that extra chop to make up for the time the cap spent building that second worker (which itself is often accompanied by a chop). Then the settler is out and you have two workers around, with nothing for them to so until the city is planted and the cap grows except possibly build roads, at which point it can improve tiles, for the cap and the new city.

However, going worker-settler-worker, means that after the settler is out (which only takes 1 chop usually), the first worker can use the time it takes for that settler to reach its destination by chopping out the second worker. That worker will arrive around the same time the settler plants, and you end up at the same place with two workers who can improve tiles both for the new city and the growing cap. But worker-settler-worker gets the city out earlier. Which means a lot, since that city comes with a lot more than just another citizen to work a tile. It has the city's tile itself, as well as another production queue, which can snowball into a faster third city and third worker, which becomes a faster everything. I highly doubt that, right now, many of the other players in this game have started their third worker, despite most of them getting a faster second worker than me. And I'm still able to work only improved tiles+whales lake (but even without the whales lake, AI working unimproved pigs for a couple turns until that pasture is done isn't that bad and doesn't delay anything).

I'm not sure if I've explained myself well here, but my general view is that you get a lot less out of that early second worker than you do from an early second city. When I micro'd my start, no matter how I tried, getting a second worker before the settler always came out behind my current micro plan.

[OT4E]

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?

No, combat odds cant be zero mathematically, it is just a matter of rounding. I mean you can still lose 100%

[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?

No, combat odds cant be zero mathematically, it is just a matter of rounding. I mean you can still lose 100%

Alright, good to know, thanks.

Post-AH report:


This is great. Speeds that city up by a good amount. Also, decided to get archery now, before the wheel and agriculture. I'm getting all three techs before pottery and I don't use the wheel or agriculture until I've already started pottery, so it doesn't really matter what order I get them in. This way I can get an archer out in time for my third city, which is going in a contentious spot, so the archer might well be useful.



I'm not sure how I feel about this. Gawdzak planted his city this turn, so I'm hoping that he either doesn't know about these horses, or he didn't when he planted this city. Otherwise that PH looks like a pretty nice spot, except for that non-riverside floodplains that can never be improved. Hopefully he settled in a different direction. I'll know next turn when I move that warrior 1SW, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to see Gawdzak's borders from that spot if he did settle there. If I do see his borders, I'll move that warrior onto the hill I want to settle ASAP, and if I see a settler of Gawdzak's in the area, I'll declare war and force him to take that hill. By the time I settle I hope to have 2 warriors already there, and an archer right behind.

On the intelligence front, Gawdzak put 1 EP into me last turn, so I'm thinking that he met his other neighbor after me, and he's focusing EP into him after he got graphs on me. I would have preferred to have been the second player he met, for psychological reasons, but I think I'll survive.

[Mr. Cairo]

Scouting Report:



No sign of Gawdzak's new city, which is good for my plans for Memory of Trees. However, his CRE-boosted cap borders would have seen my warrior, so I might as well continue moving south to scout, Otto following the path laid out by those two small x's. He won't go any further south though. I don't want to alarm Gawdzak and encourage him to send a unit to his north. The question marks are where I think his city might be if he settled in that direction. He may well have gone south or east though.

[Mr. Cairo]

Turn 38 report:


There is seafood by the copper, so I'll be planting Aniron on the grassland hill. It has no food other than the fish, but I needed a city with food and the copper immediately in the borders. Hagop the warrior will move up 1 tile to see if there's any more seafood, then stay in the area to play zone defense against barbs.


Otto is continuing to reveal where Gawdzak is settling, next turn he'll move on to that small "x"


We are still on schedule for settling Memory of Trees on time. Once secured there we'll be in a position to dictate where our future border with Gawdzak will lie, and end up very well placed for a future attack with HA's and cats+axes and swords.

[OT4E]

There is seafood by the copper, so I'll be planting Aniron on the grassland hill. It has no food other than the fish, but I needed a city with food and the copper immediately in the borders.

Why not on cooper directly?

[Mr. Cairo]

There is seafood by the copper, so I'll be planting Aniron on the grassland hill. It has no food other than the fish, but I needed a city with food and the copper immediately in the borders.

Why not on cooper directly?

That is an option I had not really considered. I'll know more when the warrior moves north, but for now I'll keep an open mind about settling on copper. There's also the question of city-placement near that pigs fort, which I can't really know about until I scout out that fog. I think I'll have time to do with that warrior and get him back in time to cover the settler. It might be that settling on the copper will badly weaken any potential city on that bit of coast.

[Mr. Cairo]

This barb warrior is very annoying, as I wanted to get that scouting warrior back up to the MoT site, I wanted one warrior on the spot itself, and another covering the tile the settler will be one a turn before. But this guy may make that difficult.


Therefore I switched Anywhere Is to a warrior that will come out in 3 turns, as opposed to the archer that will take 4 turns. I'll still finish the archer after the worker AI will build @ size 3. Since it's pretty clear that Gawdzak is not in the area at all, I only need to worry about barbs, like the one that just appeared, and for that I only really need warriors.

[Mr. Cairo]

Turn 45 Report:
First, a recap of the last few turns. I ended up fortifying my warrior in the south on a hill and the barb obligingly suicided into him, although it did manage to bring the warrior down to very low health, but he made it back north safely. My settler has arrived on the site of Memory of Trees, and another will pop out of the cap next turn to go settle the copper site. Now on to the screenshots:


Those two workers will each put a turn into mining their respective hills while the settler moves onto the plains tile. Then while the settler moves onto the grassland hill the workers will both move onto the copper tile, ready to mine as soon as the city is planted. That city will be building a workboat first, working the mine, then I think a barracks or some unit while waiting for Pottery. Wild Child will be building a chariot after the settler while it grows, then in all likelihood another chariot. These will be for scouting purposes. After that, a settler.


The worker coming out of Anywhere Is will go to the hill 2E1N and mine. AI will finish the archer then build a barracks, mostly for the border pop. Memory of Trees will build a worker right out of the gate, helped along by a chop from the forested PH 1W of it. Then those workers will improve the ivory and sheep respectively while Memory of Trees works on a barracks until Pottery. Once that archer gets to MoT I'll start sending those warriors out to fog-bust. Tech path is currently: Agri-Pottery-Sailing-Writing. Sailing is to get a scouting galley out as well as for the whales.

DOTMAP:




I've included both the BFC-version and the dot-only version, and in the BFC version I've used white to show the eventual borders of Anywhere Is.
I have decided not to settle on the copper, for a number of reasons. First, it's sub-optimal long-term. Second, it would necessitate a similar move south for all four of Teal, Purple, Blue, and Dark Red. Third, it would leave too much room in the north for two cities, but not enough for three. Fourth, it would orphan that island where Jormungandr is.
The only other place of uncertainty is the choice between Orange and Yellow. Hopefully, revealing the fogged tiles to the north of them would make the decision for me. If there are any seafoods that would be orphaned by Yellow then I'll choose Orange and orphan the grassland hill.
Settling order is currently Green (next turn), Red (three turns), then Blue. After than it will depend slightly on what Gawdzak is doing, and what worker labour is available and where they are. However, Orange/Yellow and Pink are both backline cities that are of lower priority, especially Pink, since there's so much jungle that needs to be cleared there.
Here's a blank map: http://imgur.com/DFMYfqE

Overall, I'm looking at getting a lot of happy early one (Ivory, Gold, and Whales), which fits nicely with my preference to build cities tall early on. It will also help my peripheral cities to whip their infrastructure faster. However, being expansive with lots of happy really makes me want to whip as little as possible: I have access to a lot of happy pop combined with faster workers for more improved tiles. However, with my fast granaries, whipping becomes more efficient faster, so I get the best of both worlds.