[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Mr. Cairo in Pitboss 40

[Magic Science]

It looks like all of the reload stuff is sorted out, and I didn’t even have to replay Turn 25. Excellent. On to the next turn! (As an aside, I am somewhat glad for this delay in the game, because I still have not decided what I am going to do on Turn 28)

Turn 26 – 2960 BC
   
This turn was a fairly mundane one. No animals moved, no foreign units were seen, and there were no score increases. Moncacht-Ape moved and found…no resource tiles or interesting geographic features at all. Yawn. Next turn he will move one tile northeast again, and then he will work his way west along the coast. Other paths could reveal all of the relevant land tiles more quickly, but I want to be sure to reveal the relevant sea tiles as well so I don’t orphan any seafood.

I am still doing sims to figure out what to do for Phase Three. I still haven't made up my mind about what is best.

[Mr. Cairo]

I'm in the midst of doing some simming right now, just going through your plan first, you didn't mention in your plan about working the crabs tile once it's boated, which would allow Sidon to get back the sugar farm over the floodplains for a short while.

More thoughts to come.

edit: quick thought on third city. The silver spot is likely designed to be contested. Getting early might well be a good thing, but might also cause some early conflict we desperately want to avoid, with our mostly eco-based traits. I had been thinking of settling over by the other copper. In fact, I'll do a dotmap right now.

[Mr. Cairo]

Dotmap the first:

[Mr. Cairo]

So I had a few run-throughs with the sim. I think going for fishing after hunting is the right way to go, as well as everything else you have up to T39. If you decide to go for the copper-ivory spot, the basic idea is the same as with the silver spot (only it's closer). Worker 3 will road the floodplains SW of Sidon instead of 1S. The settler still goes to Sidon, then the plains hill 1N of the sugar, to found the city the next turn on red dot (worker three can move onto the forested copper to chop into a Terrace). Red-dot gets founded on turn 42.

As for back in the capital, I had it start a worker after the settler, since with the overflow it'll only take 3 turns, and it's a gopod thing to do while we wait for pottery. I also think at that point Sidon should take back the corn to grow, since there's no forests near Sidon, so the terrace will have to be whipped.

[Magic Science]

Turn 27 – 2920 BC
To start the turn, I moved Moncacht-Ape one tile northeast, as planned, and…
   
HE STUMBLED RIGHT INTO THE JAWS OF A LION!
He should have odds to win, but they won’t necessarily be very good odds, and he might not have much health left even if he does win. Good luck, Moncacht-Ape, I hope you survive again. If he survives and has enough health that I feel confident moving him forward, then he will go one tile north, then one tile west. If he doesn't survive, then we will have to consider dispatching another unit to the area to check it out.
   
Back at Cuzco, the final turn of Phase Two went perfectly. We don’t quite have Phase Three worked out yet, but it sounds like you agree that we should research Fishing and move Worker Two towards the copper, so I will do that next turn. I will be back with more thoughts about your comments in a little while (and thanks for your excellent advice, again. I don't know what I would be doing without you).

Lastly, there was some Cloak and Dagger work to do this turn. Charriu and RFS-81 both got techs. However, this turn I am a bit confused about what happened. I have tentatively marked RFS-81 as having Bronze Working and Charriu as having Fishing, but I’m not sure. I do have demographics screenshots from every turn, so I will try to puzzle through what happened later.

[Magic Science]

Dotmap: Before talking about the actual in-game component of this, I have to ask: how did you make this? What method, program, or whatever, did you use? I imagine that I will need to make one for this game at one point, and I would like to know how.

Now, for the actual in-game component of your dotmap. I agree with your placement of yellow. We have talked about that city before, and it will be set in stone in less than five turns. I also agree with your placement of red. The other spot I had considered in that area was ON the ivory, to save worker turns and so that we don’t have to go to Iron Working to get the ivory hooked, but, looking at the rest of the map, we are going to need Iron Working soon enough anyway, and placing on the ivory is inferior from a city development standpoint to your red dot (it leaves rice second ring and kills a decent tile). I also agree with the white dot by the sheep and fish, it can share the corn with whatever city is over to the west.

As for the blue and purple dots, they seem alright to me, but they won’t be settled for a little while yet anyway, and they could still be influenced by the presence of food in the fog, so I haven’t thought to much about them yet. Nevertheless, I appreciate that you took the time to work them into your dotmap, and I will come back to them in more detail later.

The major disagreement I have with your dotmap is green dot. The spot I favor for that city is two tiles south of the nearby peak. It has first ring wheat, first ring silver, and a number of riverside tiles. A city one tile north of that (your non-black-outlined green dot) gives up three riverside tiles for some hills that the city will probably never work anyway. A city one tile west of that (your black-outlined green dot) lacks first ring food, and it gives up even more good tiles in the long term, too. However, that spot is more defensible, which is the real reason to consider settling it. I just hope that we could put a green city in a better spot for development and make it more defensible simply by putting a bunch of units in it.

Third City: I have come around to seeing your proposed red city as the best spot for a third city. It has two strong first ring tiles (rice and copper), and it has several forests to chop once the borders expand, which should not take long because it should be able to start building a Terrace almost immediately after its founding. It is also not too far away from the rest of our civilization, and it does not require any techs that we don’t already have to get going (though it will eventually need Iron Working and Animal Husbandry for the ivory).

Phase Three of the Plan: You are correct about working the improved crab tile, of course Cuzco should work it. I even did that in my sims, I just forgot to mention it in the plan I posted. I agree that Sidon will need to whip its Terrace. I am working on a (hopefully more accurate) plan with just a few changes that is adapted for settling red dot. I am feeling happier with this one, and I should have it done in a little while. I will try to explain my reasoning for my actions in it this time.

Wow, that turned out longer than I intended it. Sorry if it is a bit rambling in there.

[Mr. Cairo]

Dotmap: Before talking about the actual in-game component of this, I have to ask: how did you make this? What method, program, or whatever, did you use? I imagine that I will need to make one for this game at one point, and I would like to know how.

Now, for the actual in-game component of your dotmap. I agree with your placement of yellow. We have talked about that city before, and it will be set in stone in less than five turns. I also agree with your placement of red. The other spot I had considered in that area was ON the ivory, to save worker turns and so that we don’t have to go to Iron Working to get the ivory hooked, but, looking at the rest of the map, we are going to need Iron Working soon enough anyway, and placing on the ivory is inferior from a city development standpoint to your red dot (it leaves rice second ring and kills a decent tile). I also agree with the white dot by the sheep and fish, it can share the corn with whatever city is over to the west.

As for the blue and purple dots, they seem alright to me, but they won’t be settled for a little while yet anyway, and they could still be influenced by the presence of food in the fog, so I haven’t thought to much about them yet. Nevertheless, I appreciate that you took the time to work them into your dotmap, and I will come back to them in more detail later.

The major disagreement I have with your dotmap is green dot. The spot I favor for that city is two tiles south of the nearby peak. It has first ring wheat, first ring silver, and a number of riverside tiles. A city one tile north of that (your non-black-outlined green dot) gives up three riverside tiles for some hills that the city will probably never work anyway. A city one tile west of that (your black-outlined green dot) lacks first ring food, and it gives up even more good tiles in the long term, too. However, that spot is more defensible, which is the real reason to consider settling it. I just hope that we could put a green city in a better spot for development and make it more defensible simply by putting a bunch of units in it.

Third City: I have come around to seeing your proposed red city as the best spot for a third city. It has two strong first ring tiles (rice and copper), and it has several forests to chop once the borders expand, which should not take long because it should be able to start building a Terrace almost immediately after its founding. It is also not too far away from the rest of our civilization, and it does not require any techs that we don’t already have to get going (though it will eventually need Iron Working and Animal Husbandry for the ivory).

Phase Three of the Plan: You are correct about working the improved crab tile, of course Cuzco should work it. I even did that in my sims, I just forgot to mention it in the plan I posted. I agree that Sidon will need to whip its Terrace. I am working on a (hopefully more accurate) plan with just a few changes that is adapted for settling red dot. I am feeling happier with this one, and I should have it done in a little while. I will try to explain my reasoning for my actions in it this time.

Wow, that turned out longer than I intended it. Sorry if it is a bit rambling in there.

I just opened the screenshot in paint and used that 

You're right that the green city 2s of the peak it better, I just don't think going for it with only Quechas on defense is a good idea. I'm guessing it's somewhat equidistant between our cap and someone else's, and I wouldn't want to settle it without the means to defend it against a couple axes (for example). If we could get a scout down there to see if anyone's nearby, then I'd feel more comfortable with it.

[Magic Science]

Turn 28 – 2880 BC
VICTORY! MONCACHT-APE IS A TWO-TIME LION SLAYER!
   
He was only injured down to 60 health, too! I left him healing in place for one turn. Next turn he will promote to Woodsman I and move north, then west. At Cuzco, we entered Phase Three as Worker One moved north, Worker Two moved east, and research began on Fishing. Also, there were a few score increases this turn, so I had some more Cloak and Dagger work to do. I am having a hard time figuring out what is going on at this point. I am sure that Coeurva and shallow_thought got score increases from technology this turn, but I am not completely sure what those technologies were. My guess is that they are Hunting and The Wheel, respectively.

[Magic Science]

Turn 29 – 2840 BC
I started the turn by promoting Moncacht-Ape (THE TWO-TIME LION SLAYER) and then moving him north, then west, and…
   
…how about your blue dot, but one north? First ring crabs, first ring riverside corn, and numerous forests and riverside tiles? Sign me up! Back at Cuzco, things proceeded as planned. It won’t be our only city much longer. I will also be looking for mid-turn score increases of 8 to see when other people found second cities.

I have been working on the refined Phase Three, but, now that Moncacht-Ape has found the crabs, I feel that I should at least try a sim or two in which we go for purple dot as the third city, so the refined plan will be a bit delayed. It is definitely worth considering as a fourth city, in any case. For now, just assume that we are following the plan I posted earlier.

There were some more score increases this turn, from RFS-81 and Superdeath. This time I am quite confident that they were caused by a population growth and getting The Wheel, respectively.

[Magic Science]

Turn 30 – 2800 BC
   
Settler One was completed and ran into position this turn. We also revolted into Slavery. Besides those two things, not much happened this turn. Moncacht-Ape moved one tile west and found little of interest. That marble will make an alright tile, but we already have a source much nearer. There was no Cloak and Dagger (although I would not be surprised if someone got a score increase from a city next turn along with us). Worker One and Worker Two continued their assigned tasks. Quechua One stood in place. Check back next turn for some more excitement, I am off to do some of those sims I mentioned earlier.