057
All right folks, it's time for the "Pindicator Spends Way Too Much Time Explaining Micro" post.
Lots of decisions made over the last two turns - and the workers' turns have been written and re-written but I think I'm finally solid on the next 10-15 turns. Funny that all of this was spurned by one minor change to the last screenshot:
First off - Hindu spread to Cispus Pass is perfect. Whether or not we land Oracle here we're going to be able to follow it up with a Hindu Temple now and then run a specialist to get that Shrine out faster. I was doing some mental math on that and I figured on something like mid 90s for our shrine. Hopefully that sticks.
Now the bigger info is spying Commodore's borders when our warrior went onto the hill where our 6th city is going to go. Suddenly it was obvious that a warrior and a chariot probably weren't going to cut it for defense and we were going to have to get a vulture up there too. Minimum. First problem: I had 3/4 of our workforce tied up with getting the northern pig/cow spot hooked up as quickly as possible. Second problem: I couldn't find where we were going to get a vulture from - the only city that had decent production was tasked with building the Oracle and we didn't want that delayed.
Well, I did my micro magic and did my best to squeeze blood from a stone. Honestly there was a lot of blood to squeeze; in my first pass at worker planning I had emphasized hooking up bonus resources as fast as possible. Which makes sense from one point of view, but on the other hand you end up with very inefficient worker micro. I had 1 worker finishing the road t61 by the northern pig - necessary to let the settler out of Palouse to get to the spot in 1 turn's movement - but then 2 more workers moved onto the pig that same turn to be able to improve the pig as fast as possible. In other words: 3 workers for 1 city.
After a few iterations I had it: the two workers currently improving the cow at Cispus Pass (Big Agnes and Marmot) are going to hook up the copper and then Cispus is going to build our first Vulture. This won't slow down Oracle because our workers will then chop out 4 forests over the next 8 turns and we still land Oracle on time. But there is a cost: that northern pig/cow city now loses a turn on its pig being hooked up. And city #5 in the center doesn't have a road connection.
Meanwhile the capital starts our next settler next turn. Hurried along by the latest worker (currently chopping the forest by the capital), we're going to whip the settler eot60 with the aim of settling that central ivory spot on t64.
Cispus Pass will start it's vulture when the copper is hooked up on t59 and the vulture finishes eot63. So the vulture might be a turn or two behind but it will be close enough.
Continuing from here, the capital is going to getting a galley out after whipping that settler. Sailing is due eot63, so while it regrows from the next settler whip it will be able to build a galley by t66 thanks to 2 more chops from our other workers. Right in time to start the next settler on t67, which will be used for that gold island.
Finisterra is just sitting at size 2, building 6-turn workers. I'm sure it will have a better life ahead of it later, but right now we need somewhere to pump them out.
That just leaves Palouse, and to be honest Palouse was the city I spent the most time on. It's kind of my toughest city to figure: doesn't have the +8 or +9 fpt of Goat Rocks and Finisterra so I can't easily put it through whip cycles, and it doesn't have the production of Cispus so I can't just put it on unit duty. It's a bit in the middle for both, and because of that I decided it needs the granary ASAP.
After a lot of iterating today, I decided to delay the pig/cow city a little more: instead of 2 workers helping get that city up now it only gets 1. The last worker then is going to chop at Palouse and help it get a granary out before chopping out the galley for the capital.
Something like this:
Red and Green workers (named Osprey and Gregory) are both currently chopping to hurry along our next two settlers. Usually chopping into workers and settlers is not the way I like to go, but there's been a bit of concern about losing these next two spots - especially the central ivory spot. Originally I was going to have both red and green head north and improve the pig before green came back down south and helped chop out the galley at the capital. But when I realized I needed a granary at Palouse then that changed things around: the pig is only going to have 1 worker to improve it, so it will be delayed yet another turn. But in return we're going to get the granary at Palouse t62 and regrow to size 4 by t68. To compare, if I didn't do a chop the granary would naturally finish around t66 and would not line up with growth right. In the end it's effectively giving an extra population to The Palouse at the cost of 6 food at the new pig/cow city. And making the worker turns more efficient.
Green is going to then get a 3rd chop, this one to finish the galley at the capital. From there I'm not sure - I could change the order the forests are chopped and put it closer to the north to be able to help chop the granary out at the pig/cow city. It only saves 1 turn but that's a very effective turn because it let's us whip at exactly the right time for the granary to work best. On the other hand, maybe it's better to stay with more efficient worker turns and just build a riverside cottage. We are a bit behind on worker turns, so I think being more efficient with our worker turns will go farther.
Red worker will chop to speed out the settler from Palouse, then move north to build a segment of road that lets the settler move to the pig/cow spot in 1 turn. It then improves the pig all by itself, and chops the forest so that city an whip its granary out. Finally it improves the cow just in time to be needed.
Okay, that's way too much. I could have gone on longer about how I've been thinking about efficient worker turns vs improving the best tiles first, and which you should do depends on whether you are ahead or behind on your tile improvements. Or how having ICS cities lends help to worker micro and lets you get by with a smaller workforce (we're rather spread out here). Or how much granaries really help you out in the early game (Maybe better phrased as asking when granaries really do help you out? Because it's odd that here I want the granary in the middle food city while I'm happy to let the 8fpt and 9fpt cities regrow neatly into 10-turn whip cycles.)
Maybe I need to make some economic maxims to go with Commodore's wartime maxims. I'll think on it.
)
