[SPOILERS] The Rise and Fall of Whositania (all glory to Whositania!)

[Whosit]

I haven't tested all the permutations of my new plans yet, but it looks like I can at least end up not terribly behind where I was going to be (except that city 5 will most likely be delayed unless I cut some more corners). The big variable so far is the capital's granary. While it seems like it should be unthinkable for the capital to lack a granary by turn 70 (Overland Park goes without simply because of its enormous food bonus), it seems to be useless so far. In all the plans I've devised up to this point, after the granary is produced, the city is never actually allowed to grow. A combination of the need for workers and settlers and the lack of bonus/improved tiles in the BFC contributes to the low size of the capital. I'm going to take another pass to see what happens if I just skip the granary until city 5 is settled. It might work out, anyway, as it seems like it's not until around Turn 70 that I can start spending worker turns on capital tiles, namely cottages.

[Ceiliazul]

Also, the hut contained XP. I'd normally consider that a bad pop, but it does give my scout 10 XP, whikch means that promoting him will give me Heroic Epic eligibility, even if the scout later dies, right?

thats a good pop! you must actually use the promotion, but after that if hedies he's still Heroic. if he dies in a blue haze of unused promos, epic is not unlocked.

Keep up the good work!

[Whosit]

Well, a run-through suggests that skipping the Granary may be the right choice. I get that 5th city settled on turn 70, and my demographics are slightly stronger than in previous plans. Military is still a bit thin, but after this point it should be picking up as more copper units are produced. Turn 70-80 will probably be turns of improving what I have before starting another burst of settlement. I think I'll want to get at least a couple more workers produced during that time. Anyway, the plan is below, mainly for my reference.

No Granary Plan
T43 - Move Alexander 2W* (forest grass hill) (escape Krovice Warrior)
T44 - Willow Lake: Worker > Settler; Alexander chops to Overland Park; Benjamin moves 2S (forest); Move Warrior 1S of Willow Lake (cover both workers)
T45 - Benjamin chops to Willow Lake
T46 - Overland Park chop completes
T47 - Overland Park: Archer > Worker; Alexander moves 1NE, 1T road; Willow Lake chop finishes
T48 - Benjamin moves 1NW, roads; Alexander moves Ivory, camps
T49 - Pottery > Writing
T50 - Willow Lake: Settler > Archer; Benjamin moves 1SW, roads; Settler moves out

T51 - Alexander roads Ivory; Whip Overland Park (Worker)
T52 - Prairie Village Founded: Granary (work Wheat); Overland Park: Worker > Archer; Benjamin moves Copper; Clay moves 1S
T53 - Alexander moves 1SE, 1T road; Clay moves to Gems; Benjamin mines Copper
T54 - Alexander moves 1S, pastures pigs; Clay mines Gems
T56 - Willow Lake: Archer > Worker; Overland Park: Archer > Archer; Copper mine finishes
T57 - Writing > Maths; Benjamin roads Copper; Gems and Pigs finish
T58 - Clay roads Gems; Alexander moves 2W (forest)
T59 - Whip Willow Lake (Worker); Benjamin to Cows, pasture; Alexander chops to Overland Park

T60 - Willow Lake: Worker > Worker; Clay moves 1NW (forest); Davis moves 1SE (forest)
T61 - Alexander finishes chop; Clay chops to Overland Park; Davis chops to Willow Lake
T62 - Overland Park: Archer > Settler; Alexander moves 1SW
T63 - Benjamin moves 1N; Alexander moves 1S, roads; Davis chop complete
T64 - Willow Lake: Worker > Settler; Prairie Village: Granary > Barracks; Davis mines; Elijah moves 1NW (forest)Benjamin mines; Clay moves 1N, 1NE (hill)
T65 - Clay mines; Alexander moves 1S, roads; Elijah chops to Willow Lake
T67 - Overland Park: Settler > Axeman; Prairie Village: Barracks > Axeman; Alexander 1S, roads
T68 - Plano founded: Work Boat; Benjamin moves 1NE, 1N; Elijah moves 1SW; Davis moves 1E, cottage
T69 - Willow Lake: Settler > Granary; Clay moves 1NE, cottage; Benjamin mines; Alexander moves 1E, farms Corn; Elijah roads; (reconfigure WL, PV)
T70 - Maths > Masonry; Prairie Village: Axeman > Axeman; Avendale Founded: Work Boat; Davis moves 1N, 1NW (forest)

Turn 70 demos
5 cities, 5 Workers, 8 units
1 Granary, 2 Barracks
GNP 42, MFG 33, Crop 50, Pop 188,000

[Whosit]

Adherence to this plan depends, of course, on how my rivals act towards me, and how aggressive barbarians are. In the test run, barbarians have largely left me alone. In the new plan, the capital will have an archer for defense much earlier than in other build plans (although a defender could be whipped earlier if needed). Overland Park should be relatively safe once it produces a couple of archers. It has the population to whip more defenders if it needs it, though the main weakness is that the pigs and gems are in vulnerable locations. I'm most worried about Prairie Village (copper city), to be honest. Its defense is just a pair of Warriors until that Axeman completes, although as of turn 53, it could whip something if needed. The city itself would probably remain safe from barbarians, but improvements could be pillaged, and player attacks would bring mounted or copper units that Warriors just can't handle.

However, if I can make it to this point relatively unmolested, I will feel much more optimistic about my chances to play a role locally. If I'm feeling safe, I might use that capital archer to explore to the north rather than remain as a garrison. Once Horses are connected, I think I'll want to pop a Chariot out of Overland Park to keep on eye on Krill/Novice and explore a bit more of my northeast. Lots of plans and hopes, though from turn 70 onward I don't think my sandbox will be terribly useful anymore, meaning I'll be left to work on intuition. Woohoo....

[Whosit]

Turn 44 Report

The most important thing to note is that Krovice have pulled their Warrior back. For now. I will, of course, continue to chop out that Archer and just proceed with plan 4.56**. None of the civs I have met thus far have settled any new cities. Current count: Dtay: 3; Krovice: 2; Cheater Hater: 2; Me: 2. I will have my third city in 8 turns. Maybe when this is all over I'll check out Dtay's thread to see how and why he got that really fast 3rd.

On the demographics front, Zulu's MFG have dropped, and I think GNP went up. My crop yield exceeds theirs, as does my power. I am fairly confident that I am not facing any imminent threat from them. In 3-4 turns, I should be able to see Babylonian stats as well.

The Barbarian Warrior once again moved in such a way as to allow my scout to keep scouting. I'm kind of surprised that John is still alive at this point. I'll also have to be wary in case that barbarian comes for one of my cities, but here's what the scout found:

A city 1NE of that Oasis wouldn't be bad, but alas, I don't have the luxury of settling a distant city with Copper in the 2nd ring. I think what I will do is settle a city on that plains hill 1N of the scout. It will have Irrigated Wheat and an Oasis in 1st ring, so a +6 food bonus, and can grab those plains sheep after a border expand for another overall +2. Not really sure what to do with this place, though. It's very brown. It will probably become a manufacturing center. Let's see....

City Center: 2h; Wheat: 1h; Sheep: 1h; plains hill mine x2: 8h (-4f); grass hill mine x2: 6h (-2f)... I'd have a couple food left over that I might find another tile or two to invest in, but that's 18+ hammers for 2 turn ancient era units or 4 turn Workers (3 with some overflow). It's also in a nice strategic location (on a hill, and it lines up with my other cities to make a solid border).

I don't think it will be a high-priority city to settle, unless I either a) find out that the zulu are close or b) don't find the zulu. My options for commercial centers are still limited, and I think I'm going to have to look to the east, and possibly the north (depending on what's up there).

I think I'll send the scout 2SW next turn, as it looks like there's some forest to hide in, then I'll swing NW if possible.

[Whosit]

Let's talk strategy. I really do wish I had a dedicated lurker or partner, as I know I'm among the weaker players in this game. Alas, I'll just have to do my best on my own, and try to cover my own weakness as best I can. I think I play fairly well under two combined circumstances: I have a clear goal, and that goal isn't stupid. So what is my current goal? Expand as rapidly as I can without over-extending myself until I run out of places to expand. After that, locate someone else to expand into.

Otherwise known as: How to kill Krill and win the game.

I feel like turn 44 here is a weirdish spot. It's late enough that any major mistakes will already have had an effect, but early enough that anything is still possible. However, of the 3 neighbors I know (Krill/Novice, Dtay, and Cheater Hater [I also imagine there are at least a couple neighbors I don't know of]), Cheater Hater is probably going to be the weakest. I think that my overall strategy should be something like this:

1. Expand as much as possible
2. Conquer Cheater Hater
3. ???
4. Profit

Likewise, I'm going to have to figure out how to not die to Krill during all this, because I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think Krill/Novice see me as a potential snack. I think I'm good enough that I wouldn't die to a half-hearted attack, but my track record in these games is to basically fall dismally behind by the medieval age and get conquered. That's one reason I'm concerned about my economy. I hope I'm not getting cottages too late, and I hope I can secure some of that land to the east, because that's the only land I've seen so far that's green enough to support more commercial cities. Of course, settling into the teeth of my most dangerous enemy with non-manufacturing towns could be problematic.

Anyway, that's the general plan. Survive, try to kill and conquer my weakest neighbor, and leverage that land into an advantage over my stronger neighbors.

Of course... taking neighbor's land will give me more neighbors.

[Whosit]

So this is the best I could come up with. Let's start with the north city. I plan to scout out that location a bit further, of course, and maybe I'll luck out by finding some other resources in the fog, but I think I can make do with that as-is. Dry Rice is pretty awful, of course, but it might literally be better than nothing. I'd plan for this city to borrow the capital's sheep to help it get started. Why do I not settle 1N? I might change with additional scouting to the north, but right now I'm hoping to settle a city that can get those cows and crabs for itself without having to share (plains cows...). Secondly, the hill. This city is going to be on the Krill front, after all. The rice will be enough to support a number of cottages, plus those two grass hills and/or specialists. It will help form a very aesthetically pleasing triangular commercial core.

The southern city I don't like so much, but I want something down there. I think I would love to have a city on that plains hill next to the wheat, but I feel that it would be unlikely for me to be able to nab that. There's... just not much down in this area, I feel. It's rather brown and dry, and those pigs are surely going to have to get shared out, but I want Overland Park to have them once I have a higher happy cap. Ehhhh. I'm not happy that it isn't on a hill. Basically, if I can't somehow get a city to grab that wheat, then I'll just throw a city down to grab territory. Krill has the Creative advantage for border conflicts, and well, he and Novice are just better players than me. I don't know where his second city is, and I think I'd have to be awfully lucky for him to be expanding in another direction.

[Whosit]

Turn 45 Report

Rejoice, for the enemy is known:

The scout actually has one move left, but I'm just going to hold position because I want to move to the hill to the northwest next turn. I'm fairly certain that this is the second Zulu city, but we shall see. It definitely seems too close to be the capital.

This also means that a city on that plains hill would be highly contested, and the window to settle it is going to be brief. I didn't grab a screenie, but Dtay's scout is wandering back my way from the west. In the next few turns, John there is going to scope out more of the Zulu presence. I'm happy he's lived this long, even if my scouting instincts tend to be bad.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I think when I hit turn 70, my next goal will be +3 cities in the next 20 turns, for 8 cities on Turn 90. I feel like my expansion is kind of slow, but I think it's a comfortable pace. Those next 3 cities would be the commercial city east of the capital, that plains hill city to secure a border against the Zulu, and hopefully something to the north.

Assuming I can do all that and get the city locations I want, I think I'd better keep a close eye on my Zulu border, because those two cities could be forked if I'm not paying attention. Preferably, I can find a way to secure the initiative against my neighbors.

I think if I wanted to get really aggressive, I'd find a way to settle a city to the west of copper city, somewhere along the coast.

[Whosit]

I used world builder to try and see what a couple of my towns might be able to do post Civil Service:

If the city wasn't on a hill, I could put down a couple extra grass farms to feed another workshop. As it is, I could farm every other tile and maybe work some specialists? Might not be an awful proposition later.


Hammers.


I could squeeze a few more hammers out if I irrigated from the east (plains farms for the win). Pretty much just a barracks camp.

Just a bunch of hammer towns. Hopefull the north, northeast can produce enough commerce to keep the empire floating. Also, if everything goes ideally for me (ha) I can probably get around 12 cities in the area I've explored, and perhaps 2-3 more to the north. I'm not sure how an empire of 15 cities stacks up on this map. I'll have to see if there are any islands, as well.

[Whosit]

Scout moves this turn leave me feeling unnerved:

I am incredibly surprised that I have not been hit by Impis. It's only 5 turns from Theros to my capital. A couple of whipped or chopped Impis could probably have eliminated or crippled me. At this distance, it might not have been a bad investment. I think that I am going to have to leave a unit on that hill to keep an eye on things. Perhaps my warrior once it's healed. I want my scout to keep scouting.

In other news, the Zulu have their 3rd city:

I'm still 6 turns from my next city (and about 12 from having Copper connected!). I may have to consider if whipping the capital to get my Settler out a turn earlier would be worthwhile.