[spoilers] - Pindicator makes America great again!

[pindicator]

Turn 099



What a strange primary this has been.




That's city #10 for us, though this one will only be using riverside grass farms to feed itself. The key point here is the Ivory. Which, oh hey, Old Harry wants to give us spices for open borders. No, giving you 30 to 40 free commerce is not worth that, sorry.

I whipped several units this turn: a settler out of Sanders, a worker at Bush. 10 cities and I only have 7 workers running around. I could get away with that with how little improvable land there really was: i rarely worked an unimproved tile after all. But now with Iron Working coming soon, I'm going to be chopping jungle, and lots of it. So I also started a worker in Clinton, and I'll also whip that one home. That will give me 9: 4 on Sicily, 4 around the Chafee-Drumpf-Cruz area, and my last is roading hill tiles around O'Malley, getting ready to chop and mine them.

Speaking of Iron Working, I turned on the slider and am doing a Wealth Build in Drumpf to try and get it in 3. I woudl very much like another axe out of Drumpf to go explore that jungle island to my east, but then again, I'd like Iron Working even more.

[pindicator]

The Turn 100 Report Extravaganza!

As per tradition, it is time to celebrate an arbitrary number with an extended report on the comings and goings of our civ.

Here's the big picture. We'll then go section by section and then wrap up with a big picture, starting in the South and working our way north and west.

[pindicator]

The South




Sanders right now is the strongest city in the area, and unfortunately is stuck building all the wrong things. It just whipped a settler out last turn, and this turn the overflow plus mines will get the next settler out in 4 turns. I thought about a lighthouse -- which is needed as this is still the future Moai site -- but settlers are needed north, northern cities are building units which are also needed, and this lets me give the rice tile to Bush to allow that city to grow a bit. Once the stone at De La Fuente is hooked up Moai gets started here, whether or not a lighthouse is built yet.

Kasich has all the immediate infrastructure of Granary + Lighthouse. I think this is a good city for me to rotate into a whipping cycle for settlers and units: it does not have a lot of good tiles to work, at least until workshops are available, and it's positioned well to send units to Sicily fairly easily. It's next priority is to finish it's work boat, which we'll send to 2metra for scouting. After that we'll debate between whipping more settlers/workers or building up to whip a larger piece of infrastructure, like a library.

De la Fuente is the easiest to plan for: we want to get the granary built right before the borders pop and we hook up the fish on turn 105, and then whip a lighthouse after chopping that forest into it. The stone here will also soon become important as we aim for Masonry after Iron Working: the sooner the stone is hooked up the sooner we can start Moai and even build a few cheap walls for more vulnerable cities. One worker is probably not going to cut it here but I'm also not sure if I'm going to be able to get another one sent onto the island, so this should be a balancing act here and the other cities on Sicily.

Rubio is almost set, believe it or not. That lighthouse will be chopped and then whipped, and at that point the city is going to grow pretty fast thanks to the lakes and crab. A library will do wonders here so we can run some specialists, but I may also take advantage of the food to whip some workers and settlers from here.

Upcoming Cities:
Originally I planned on the settlers from Kasich and Sanders would both go to Sicily and found cities on the spots marked above. But with Iron Working finishing very shortly, there became a need for settlers in the jungles up north and west, and I realized that the spots on Sicily would not be fast growing locations, nor would they be highly contested. So I changed plans, and decided to only send the settler from Kasich to Sicily; the two settlers Sanders makes will both head north: one to settle the plains hill south of O'Malley and the other to settle across the water to the island in the west.

I also surprised myself a bit when I decided that I was going to use the settler from Kasich to build a city on the spot marked 'filler' instead of the city that grabs the fish. Both cities will take some time to grow: whether waiting for borders to pop for the fish or for waiting to grow on grassland farms. But I think the spot marked filler is going to do more for growing in the area: we'll be able to mine the hills and get more hammers in the area for building needed units. And like Cruz in the north, this is not a city that will need a lot of it's own infrastructure so it can focus more on units for the area. I'm not sure when I'll fill in that fish city on the north tip of Sicily, but it will be likely a whipped settler from Kasich or Rubio. So I unloaded a worker this turn, which will chop out a forest for the new city's granary and then help build farms and mines.


Also, the barbarians also had a surprise planned for the big turn 100 extravaganza:



With that discovery I moved the chariot back into my borders to heal it. As soon as we're healed up and the axe is on flatland we'll take a swing at it.

[pindicator]

The East Coast

We finally hooked up the Ivory this turn, and in the upcoming turns the work goals here are to chop jungle, chop trees, and cottage up Clinton. I still need to do more in the area for defenses, but this is my main unit-producing area of the civilizatoin. Eventually I want to plant some archers on the hill north of my copper, but I'm also hoping my iron is in a better spot to defend than my copper... Also, I have a scout entering TBS's lands this turn.




Bush
I'm not sure what to do with this city. The gold mine is probably enough that I shouldn't be whipping it any more and instead should build commerce multipliers and let it grow onto as much coast as possible. Earlier I was whipping it but now I think I have better options. Not much excitement here; this is going to be a simple commerce city I think.

Clinton
Like Bush I think I'm done whipping Clinton. I considered whipping this worker to completion, but I remember how over-whipping was a big cause of me falling behind in PB18, and already I can see my population is falling compared to my rivals. So we'll slow build the worker at Clinton, and then get some needed infrastructure (like a lighthouse). This is one of the two cities I'm considering building Statue of Zeus in, to take advantage of extra XP on naval units. But really, we're going to cottage all these grassland tiles and then turn this into a commerce city, so I'm starting to lean away from building SoZ here.

Drumpf
The main mfg city, and the spot I'll try to build The Great Library at, Drumpf is going to build units when needed, but is going to try and stay on Build Wealth as much as possible. We'll reach size 8 next turn, and won't be able to grow taller until either we build a market or research Calendar.

Cruz
A lot in common with Drumpf, actually, but Cruz will really get a chance to grow once Iron Working comes in. After we chop and farm the sugar, Cruz will be able to grow to size 7 and reach 18hpt. Then like Drumpf the goal will be to spend as much time as possible on Build Wealth - but there are also a number of forests around Drumpf that need to be chopped, forests that I probably should put into settlers.

Chafee
Basic filler city, we'll try and build units and navy here. I don't see this city doing too much. Once stone comes in Chafee and Cruz will get some walls. Maybe we'll build a spy or two here...

[pindicator]

The Wild West




This area is huge in the unknown and huge in potential. What I have uncovered is rife with jungle, but once chopped the area will become very productive. The unknown is farther to the west, which we will finally be uncovering over the next few turns. My galley has finally arrived in the area; this turn a warrior boarded, and we will hopefully get some exploration in before running into an axe or whatever causes that warrior to meet it's end. With that in mind, an axe is headed west from Cruz to be shuttled over after. Actually, the axe should hit the west coast at about the same time that the settler from Sanders will be arriving. Ideally we'll find a city worth founding by then.

If not, and it is obvious that the axe is needed for scouting, then the back-up plan is to settle the plains hill south of O'Malley with that first settler. A second settler is four turns behind, and that should be enough time to find something worth settling. And there is also a work boat fresh out of O'Malley that will be going along the north coast.

O'Malley
I'm half finished with a lighthouse here, but I stopped to build a work boat (just finished) and now I'm interjecting a worker in. There are a pair of grass hills that I really want to have chopped and mined to help this city become a good production area. In fact, this has me thinking that i want to build SoZ here and not at Clinton. In the end, there may be more of a need for workers and units for western expansion, and I may just put it in Clinton regardless.

[pindicator]

Turn 101

I think I get it. It's all been a big misunderstanding. That's okay, these things happen.




But my civ does not eat rocks. Please fix, kthxbye.

[pindicator]

Turn 102

Break-even is currently at 20%. I'm going to have to keep cities on Build Wealth, but i want to get another worker out of Drumpf and a chariot out of Cruz (to scout 2metra with). As far as GNP goes, it's really bad. I think I need to grow my cities and be really stingy on the whips.

There were 2 places where I was afraid I'd see Iron: under Chafee was one spot. This was the other:




I think I'm still putting the city on top of the iron.

Also: IS THAT A FIRST-RING FISH!?

[pindicator]

Turn 103

This is some bullshit map.




Meanwhile, I'm scrounging around settling spots like this:



(I also messed up on the worker movement down here, and Carson is going to have to wait a few turns for the farm to be done because of it.)

And I'm looking to places like this as "lush and fertile land":



Notice all the corn and pigs that I get? All the great spots for cottages? Me neither.

I did get a forest growth here. So I guess the RNG loves me.



And hey, a copper! More of that please.

Got graphs on Old Harry finally. So let's see the field:

Makes you wonder how good Old Harry's land is...

Demos:




Last in GNP, first in MFG. I need to be running Build Wealth as much as possible to have a chance. And grow my cities. And plant as many cities as I can: I have plans for at least 4 more.

Finally, one last bit that I almost missed. Go back to that island picture. It's really hard to see, and probably harder to see it in the screenshot. But there's grey borders in the fog, north of my work boat. Grey borders means Commodore.

[scooter]

Those Old Harry demos are pretty scary. All he needs is a nice break or two, and this could be one of the earliest pitboss concessions we've seen. Something tells me it's the map script's fault.

[pindicator]

Turn 105

Can anyone help me find my Pig + Corn + Flood Plains city? I can't seem to find it.

Or any pigs. Or corn. Or flood plains.

At all.

The island turned out to be a perfect microcosm for this game: full of promise, but in the end a pretty big disappointment.




Actually, I will move the t111 city spot one tile west. Yes, we'll orphan a pair of grassland tiles (and those feel like gold in this game) but that's not as good as waiting 10 turns for borders to pop.

I've got my next 3 settlers mapped out for when they arrive. Worker turns are going to be light, with only 5 in the area. Good thing I never get any land based food to hook up, huh!? The island settlers are already on the way, with one loading onto the galley this turn. The third settler is going to be chopped out of Chafee: with a pair of chops it will finish in 3 turns, and this also leaves the capital and Cruz to stay on Build Wealth.

We'll have one more settler for Sicily and then I'm out of places to settle.

REM built Hanging Gardens this turn. I was kind of hoping Old Harry would do it, so we could get around to conceding faster. But since that isn't happening, I might as well spell out how the game is going to go. Old Harry is going to continue to run away with things, because the Gods blessed him with abundant grains and fertile kine. TBS is going to feel like he's still a potential contender, but he needs to get more land. So he's going to get to a comfortable tech in the game and then come after myself or Commodore. Tough for him that we're both dogged defenders. But his superior numbers and production will tell, because I'm going to be desperately building Wealth in half my cities just to try and keep up.

On to Aesthetics! Everybody else literally has Mathematics except us, and Calendar will help, but I need to do a bit of a hail mary, and going for Great Library to bulb Astronomy feels like the right kind of Hail Mary. Although it does look like I will need Mathematics in order to build a fort on that marble and hook it up...