[SPOILERS] - social distancing with pindicator

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Curious side question, how would ORG have done vs. PRO/FIN at this point?



Not sure how rounding works here, so 6? 7?

If in org rel, organized would probably outpace pro/fin for a short while, but otherwise it seems pretty poor.

[pindicator]

Organized has the lighthouse and courthouse boosts as well. And on this map both of those are going to be really nice.

Too bad nobody picked an ORG leader.

[pindicator]

Pretty clear I'll have 12 numids ready to go in 10 turns, though I might try to throw a few chariots in too. Half will have 2 promotions, which means even my worst fight will be better than a coin flip.

[pindicator]

084

Sometimes it feels like the game is taunting me




Also, I finally got Mr. Cairo's graphs but now I've lost Gira's and Superdeath's again. Sucks when half the known world is putting graphs into you, but they're about to meet for the first time so that should give me an opportunity to level off with everyone.

EDIT: Almost forgot!

PRO: 9 (230)
FIN: 8 (141)

[pindicator]

085

Love these quick turns.

We're doing a lot of scouting on my borders right now.




First off, I decided to send my axe up to explore superdeath. Not ideal as I really would like to have that unit back home with an upcoming war, but I think I'd rather scout out superdeath now. I've also hooked up my iron, so you might see a couple swords later too. But my attack force is going to be more on delivering a quick strike so it's going to be all 2-movers. No swords there.




Work boat has made it back around to Gira's southern coast. Nothing too exciting yet, but hopefully we will get to see some things in the turns to come.



In the east I decided to send out my other axe, and found a couple interesting things. Gira has a scout that's been hanging out in the area for a long time, dodging barbarians. I've been watching the constant stream of barbarians east, largely ignoring my cities but occasionally sending someone north. And it looks like there is a barb city in the fog here too. Maybe another addition to the empire later on? We'll see how it is set up; it's more likely going to be razed with those future swords I mentioned before.



Lots of things finishing next turn. Horses hooked up next turn. It's time.


PRO: 9 (239)
FIN: 9 (150)

[pindicator]

Oh shoot, I left out the best part about last turn!




Banana village!

I don't think we're paving over that.

[pindicator]

Prediction:



AT just triple whipped an aqueduct in a city, planning to chop out the Hanging Garden next turn, but Superdeath beat him to it.

[pindicator]

This is wonderful.  I posted last 12 hours ago, and I'm now 3rd from the bottom on the forum page.  Awesome job everyone!  I'm going to have as much fun reading these threads as I did playing the game.

086

Enemies on all sides. Oh to be Superdeath and have safe backlines and only one neighbor to worry about! I'd do just about what he is doing: tech away in peace.

Superdeath did not build Hanging Gardens this turn. So I suspect he just timed a lot of city growth to go with his elephant camp finishing. And probably got a ton of land points too because he's CRE. And the power spike suggests Math or Iron Working for a tech. In any case, he's in a great position right now. And he knows what he needs to prepare against:




If Gira showed any indication he would play nice, I would go after Superdeath here instead. Spears on a hill look like a nice bulwark against my Numidians, but I would ignore those- race right by and get to that copper hill. Pillage the copper, and then look for what cities I can burn. I'm writing this here because that's what we may end up doing later.

One note about Superdeath's play that may be telling a bit in the score: he hardly whips. Perhaps this is too much RtR gameplay where whips have been nerfed. But we're back to full-value whipping and whipping early is king. You want to be hitting that button every 10 turns unless there's a better reason not to. Once your cities are happy-capped where else is that food going to go? Grow your cottages, whip away the population - repeat until you get to late Classical era. It's been a long time since we've had the OG slavery civic here so I don't blame people for getting stuck in RtR molds.

But Gira instead is showing aggression from the start. And it honestly is probably smart to just get bigger right now and work to gobble him up. Then bottle up Superdeath while my superior number of cities will tell later in the game. So we continue to look towards Gira for our upcoming war.




Nothing here to worry about so far.

What I do have to worry about is to the southeast:



That first barbarian archer which I thought was passing me by has instead gone around the lack and is making to for Clackamas. And the first did not suicide on my axe, so I decided I needed to pull my axe back - but that was a mistake, I should have just stayed on the forest and hope the archer would attack this next turn. But I need to cover Clackamas somehow- I think the archer from Lake is going to pull over, and what I was thinking with my axe was that the axe needed to stay close to Lake in case something went sideways there.

I had just talked myself into not doing any Numid builds out of Clackamas and instead whipping a library to get those cows under my culture (because Buddhism only seems to spread to my cities that already have culture), but now I might whip a numid out of here anyway. Probably can still keep to the library plan.

And if that wasn't enough, I have to watch the north now too:



Enemies on all sides! Cairo obviously wants to claim the wine and set a defensible city - but really I wonder if he should have put that on a hill. In any case, if all he wants to do is claim the wine then so be it; we'll deal with him later. Thank goodness Impi lost their Mobility promotion, otherwise I'd really need to worry about an attack from him. Now anything by land will be slow. Hopefully he doesn't come by sea...

Oh to be in Superdeath's starting position!


EDIT: I keep forgetting!

PRO: 9 (248)
FIN: 11 (161)

FIN finally surpasses PRO as we had 2 more cottages grow into hamlets! Now how long until it catches up?

[pindicator]

So the eagle-eyed among you may be wondering how I plan on going to war in 7 turns when currently I have 0 units right now.

Short version:
Through the magic of the whip and the wonder of the chop.

Long version:




Tillamook is going to produce 3 Numids and 1 Stables over the next 5 turns.

We delayed the Barracks to complete last turn so the overflow4 would combine with its natural 11 production and give us 17/50 into a Numid this turn. Next turn we 2-pop whip the city, so the Numid is at 77/50, but immediately after whipping swap the city to a Stables. A chop comes in next turn as well, finishing the Stables and giving 11 overflow. On t88 we go back to the Numid, and it completes at 99/50, with 49h overflow. t89 we finish a Numid at 60/50 with 10h overflow. t90 we chop into a 3rd numid so it finishes at 51/50.





Clatsop is going to produce 2 Numids, 1 Chariot, and 1 Stables

The Stables was chopped in this turn, giving us 11h overflow. Next turn we start a Numid, but take the citizen off of the grass mine so that the numid finishes with 18/50 - you want to stay below 20h before you whip! Then t88 we will 2-pop whip Clatsop giving us 35h overflow. On t89 we build a chariot, finishes with 15h overflow. And on t90 we add a chop to the overflow to 1-turn out a second Numid.





Yamhill is going to produce 3 Numids.

Fairly straight forward here. 6 overflow and 6 hammers give 12/50 into the Numid this turn. Next turn we 2-pop whip (seeing a pattern here?) and have 24h overflow to go into the next Numid. t89 a chop comes in to finish Numid #2, and on t91 a second chop comes in to finish Numid #3.





Clackamas might produce 1 Numid.

I'd much rather chop and whip out that library so I can get the cows under my borders. But I may also just decide that it's more important to get another unit for the war to make sure that I don't run out of steam. I could also chop out a chariot here as well, but that just feels wrong. But there's no barracks here so it doesn't feel like there's a huge need to force out units from here if it doesn't make sense to.





Malheur is going to produce 2 Numids.

I screwed up the micro already for Malheur - it was supposed to take the plains hill for some extra production - but that wont' ruin anything. We'll whip the first Numid in 2 turns when the previous whip anger wears off, and then chop out the second Numid on t89. Clackamas and Malheur both have to get their Numids out by end of t89 due to being a little farther away from the staging tile.





Coos is going to produce 1 Numid.

Unfortunately it isn't large enough to 2-pop whip yet, but we'll do so as soon as we reach size 4. And shoot, I screwed up here as well - I'm going to have too much production in this city by the time it grows to size 4. My notes say that I should swap off the Iron to work a grass cottage but that just feels wrong. Better will be to swap back to the library for a turn.

Like Clackamas, Coos also does not have a barracks so there isn't a huge rush. But unlike Clackamas it already has borders expanded so we can put a whip into a Numid.

And that's all of it: in total we'll have 11, maybe 12 Numids, and 1 chariot. Since we're second in turn order by the time Gira sees the stack he'll be too late to whip, but if he's smart he'll whip spears in as soon as he sees my power start spiking. One concern of mine is that I don't know where his copper is.


Side note: i used to love doing this kind of micro, but wow does it take a lot of time. I'm glad I only pull it out for important situations now. And getting as many numids together as possible as quickly as possible certainly counts. But making sure that the workers can actually move to the tiles that you need chopped and to try and do so efficiently, and also to make sure that cities which share tiles aren't working the same tile by mistake and also aren't working unimproved tiles (or at least minimizing that), deciding which turn that you are going to be able to have enough units to launch an attack on and then working backwards for each city to see when the cutoff turn is for getting units on for that first wave - it all takes multiple passes and honestly there's usually at least one error that pops up. Or perhaps I just don't have the same amount of enthusiasm and energy for intensive micro plans as I did 7 years ago.

[pindicator]

087

Buddhism continues it's long tradition of spreading only to cities that already have culture




I can see why Superdeath's GNP is so good - it's not just CRE, he's got a ton of flood plains to cottage. But man, you gotta get more workers SD! You're working 3 unimproved tiles here and is one of them a bare plains hill? Just whip the city and end the suffering of those poor citizens.

Also, Gira's work boat is coming by at an inopportune time. Pretty sure he's going to see a Numid coming out of the capital this way. I caught a spear was added to his Axe/Warrior stack down south so it's like he read my advise last turn. Because of this and because it's stupid to try and chase two rabbits at once, Clackamas is going to whip units. But not Numids - we'll be adding some axes & swords to follow up the main numid stack. In case things get bogged down. In fact, I think that's what all my cities will do- Numids out of the two cities that have Stables and melee units everywhere else.

Speaking of units, Yamhill & Tillamook whipped this turn. I then changed my micro a bit and did something unconventional, so I'll try to explain my reasoning and lurkers can decide if my logic is sound or if I'm out-thinking myself here and messing up.




So there's Tillamook, after the whip. Notice I've got the Numid highlighted to show it has the 77/50 in queue -- okay, I just had a terrifying thought and went into the game to test that the extra production after the 50h does not disappear or roll over or go anywhere else after the turn is ended. Wheh, should have tested that earlier! Anyway, Numid has the right number of hammers after the whip, and now I've chopped out the stables. But I also have stopped working the cottages and hamlets and I really don't want to stop getting my commerce. I'm also right at the happy cap in all my cities, so food isn't that important. Plus I really want to try and squeeze out Sailing in 2t and it's going to be really tight to get there. So I've arranged my tiles a little unconventionally. Not so much here in Tillamook but...




Here's Yamhill after it's whip. Not working the Wheat, but instead working the hamlet that it shares with the capital. I'll grow next turn and then work Wheat, Clam, and plains hill mine - or i might swap the clam for the hamlet, but only if I still have enough food to make it back to the happy cap right as whip anger fades. EDIT: Went back after and swapped the Clam for the Wheat - that's just the better tile even if it costs a commerce.




And a little more extreme example, Malheur no longer works the farmed sugar tile, opting for the 2f3c hamlet that Tillamook can no longer work. Next turn we whip Malheur so it will be back to growing.

In general with all these I'm trying to work the cottages and hamlets as much as possible, and doing so at the expense of food only if i know that the city will grow back to happy cap. Maybe I'm squeezing water from stone here, or maybe I'm sabotaging myself - but it intuitively feels like it's the right arrangement.