[SPOILERS] scooter tries Civ6

[Sullla]

Each charge is currently worth 27 production. As a refresher, 6 charges at 27/each gets us to 162/180 complete. We’ve already invested 8 production into it the slow way, meaning we’re only 10 natural production away from completion. Once we hit that, I’ll probably do some alternation each turn where I pop a charge into Stonehenge and then swap to Monument for turn roll production, then back to Stonehenge on the following turn for charges, rinse repeat.

You've got the right idea here, except that I think that you would do better to put that production into the Holy Site, not a largely unneeded monument. The Holy Site is important because it will land the boost for State Workforce and help speed along your path to Political Philosophy. So yeah, get enough production into Stonehenge such that the builder charges will finish the wonder, but then put the natural turn roll production into the district instead of the monument.

You also might want to clear the barb camp that you discovered in the west before doing more exploring. It's only going to spawn more barb units to trouble the capital, plus you'll get more gold (and I believe some era score points) for clearing the camp.

[scooter]

You've got the right idea here, except that I think that you would do better to put that production into the Holy Site, not a largely unneeded monument. The Holy Site is important because it will land the boost for State Workforce and help speed along your path to Political Philosophy. So yeah, get enough production into Stonehenge such that the builder charges will finish the wonder, but then put the natural turn roll production into the district instead of the monument.

Oh right, totally agree. Slipped my mind.

You also might want to clear the barb camp that you discovered in the west before doing more exploring. It's only going to spawn more barb units to trouble the capital, plus you'll get more gold (and I believe some era score points) for clearing the camp.

Well, I kinda thought initially the desert was a dead end and I could just circle back to it. The turn I played this morning has me further questioning this hypothesis. SPEAKING OF.


Turn 29





This is a fairly large desert thus far, and I’ve now found copper and sheep. I am completing a warrior at the capital EoT, so I could always keep exploring with this warrior and send the new warrior northwest to clear that barbarian camp.





I purchased our new builder on this turn. I spent my second charge on Stonehenge this turn (that’s charge 3 for the builder), and next turn Stonehenge will receive one charge from each builder. We’re nearly there. Civic swap incoming next turn as well.





I took another shot at the barb warrior with my slinger, but next turn I may have to retreat it inside the city to heal. I haven’t seen anything unusual the past few turns on the scoreboard or anywhere else. TheArchduke is still only increasing his great prophet points at 1/turn, although it’s really irrelevant for our purposes.

[Jabah]

Can't you just move the sliger and shot in the same turn ?

[scooter]

Can't you just move the sliger and shot in the  same turn ?

Genuinely didn't think this was possible, or else I would have moved onto the grassland 1W instead of the rice marsh (where I get hit with a defense malus). Shows how many times I've used Slingers.

[scooter]

Turn 30





We appear to have actually discovered some sort of land bridge down here. Check out that 4 adjacency campus location between the +2 fissure and +2 reef. That’s fun.





2 more charges went into Stonehenge this turn. We’ll sink just one more turn (this one) into Stonehenge of natural build, and our last charge on T32 will complete it to 182/180.





I made a silly mistake this morning in forgetting to swap to and complete Foreign Trade. This means we do have to wait one more turn for the civic swap. Perhaps I should stop playing turns in the morning . Unfortunately my slinger was down to virtually no health, so it didn’t look like I was going to be able to kill that barb warrior for the eureka. I went ahead and promoted it, and I moved the warrior down a tile just to help cover for a turn. Ideally though I’d like to send that northwest starting next turn to go clear that barb camp. Mining is complete end of turn, and Pottery next seems the most useful.





Here’s my stab at a location for our next city zoomed in to help see through the fog. The main downside here is it would require purchasing the desert flatland tile, which is really something I’d prefer to avoid in general as we’d like things like cash to go into builders. Short of settling ON the wheat itself, there’s just no way to settle on the river and get flatland desert first ring, so this would have to do. 1W may be better to pick up the 1/3 tile? The other downside here is it would require either waiting for another desert city southwest to land Petra, or buying yet another desert flatland tile at a premium third-ring cost to open up a valid Petra location (SW of Pyramids).





Or if we wanna get wild, there’s this. This city sucks until it gets both wonders, but at least the first one can fuel the second with the free builder. The idea would be to builder-rush Pyramids ASAP, and then use the free builder to rush Petra. Throw in a couple mines and hooked resources, and this city could be good after not too long. I slapped in the Theater Square as well just because it’s an obvious +4 adjacency spot. Who knows, maybe we could squeak another wonder around that spot at some point.


Any thoughts?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Hm, the Petra city would be pretty monstrous, the drawback of course is that it's such a slow starter - other than the Pyramids, the city would be virtually useless until after Mathematics is researched. That COULD be our next target after Masonry, but a lot depends on the world situation. We should be due to meet a neighbor soon, and any one of them might necessitate focusing on Archery or Horseback Riding instead - the Archduke for obvious reasons, Alhambram can levy and upgrade city-state armies at us, and even Cornflakes has Varu and might think about getting frisky in the Classical Age if we look tasty. So, the question is if we can afford the short-term pain of that city for the long-term gain of Petra - and for that I think we need to wait for more information.

If we think we can push things, I like the long-term payoff more, of course. Fastest way would be getting down a holy site, campus, and probably a commercial hub to inspire mathematics and heading there after Masonry unlocks the Pyramids for us. Send a builder after the settler to charge the Pyramids, then use the free builder to charge Petra, then use the new city's desert production to spit out one more builder to start mining them thar hills. 

As for the theater square, you COULD squeeze in the Great Lighthouse or the Colossus on the coastal tile next to it, but that necessitates a harbor. But if we have Choral Music and lots of Holy Sites, do we even necessarily want theater squares? We won't get much payoff from it other than the 4 culture, which is about equal to 1 holy site with a shrine + temple.

ETA: Slingers/ranged units can attack as long as they have >0 movement points left, even if it's just a fraction, I believe.

[Sullla]

Scooter, your third city location is a good choice. I like that spot or the tile to the west of it as city locations. The tile to the west gets a 1/3 forested plains hill tile in the first ring, but your city location gets two of those tiles in the second ring, plus if you were to purchase the 1/3 forested plains hill tile to the southeast, you could also swap the deer tile at the capital over to the third city if needed. I definitely think one of those two spots is the place to go with your next city.

Your suggested desert city spot is a bad one though, at least for the third city. Just like in Civ4, it's important for early city locations to keep snowballing you ahead rather than serving as weak resource sinks. That desert city would be awful until you can finish Petra, and Petra is a wonder that will likely arrive around roughly Turn 75-80. You definitely don't want a near-useless city for its first 50 turns of existence. Don't worry, no one is going to be building Petra with China in the game, and you can grab an awesome city in that desert region for city #6 or so. (Ideal spot will probably be one tile west of the desert sheep resource.)

One note on Pyramids: it can be built on a flatground desert tile or a floodplains tile. I think the tile east of the southern wheat is a floodplains tile, which could avoid the need to purchase a tile for the Pyramids. You might want to check that tile when the turn comes back again to be sure one way or the other.

[scooter]

We should be due to meet a neighbor soon, and any one of them might necessitate focusing on Archery or Horseback Riding instead - the Archduke for obvious reasons, Alhambram can levy and upgrade city-state armies at us, and even Cornflakes has Varu and might think about getting frisky in the Classical Age if we look tasty. So, the question is if we can afford the short-term pain of that city for the long-term gain of Petra - and for that I think we need to wait for more information.

For whatever it's worth, this concern doesn't really register for me in the near term. 4 players on a small map means we're probably going to be pretty spread apart, and the fact that nobody has stumbled upon our borders after 30 turns seems to back that up. I can't imagine it'll be worth it for anyone to go conquering at 3-4 cities when they could just be building settlers instead. Feel free to make this QOTM if I get rushed at 3-4 cities.

As for the theater square, you COULD squeeze in the Great Lighthouse or the Colossus on the coastal tile next to it, but that necessitates a harbor. But if we have Choral Music and lots of Holy Sites, do we even necessarily want theater squares? We won't get much payoff from it other than the 4 culture, which is about equal to 1 holy site with a shrine + temple.

ETA: Slingers/ranged units can attack as long as they have >0 movement points left, even if it's just a fraction, I believe.

I definitely agree Theater Squares in general are pretty anti-synergistic with Choral Music, but maybe one or two are worth it depending on placement. We'll see - it's really just straight-up cost/benefit thing. Also, my slinger confusion I think is rooted in using siege units that do not move and fire at the same time.

Scooter, your third city location is a good choice. I like that spot or the tile to the west of it as city locations. The tile to the west gets a 1/3 forested plains hill tile in the first ring, but your city location gets two of those tiles in the second ring, plus if you were to purchase the 1/3 forested plains hill tile to the southeast, you could also swap the deer tile at the capital over to the third city if needed. I definitely think one of those two spots is the place to go with your next city.

<snip>

One note on Pyramids: it can be built on a flatground desert tile or a floodplains tile. I think the tile east of the southern wheat is a floodplains tile, which could avoid the need to purchase a tile for the Pyramids. You might want to check that tile when the turn comes back again to be sure one way or the other.

Oh, I totally didn't notice that was a desert floodplains next to the wheat. I actually just re-opened the save to confirm, and yes it is. So with that in mind, my chosen spot seems like definitely the way to go. I like the idea of opening up the deer swap, especially given that the capital has an abundance of strong tiles, and it won't necessarily always be able to work them all at once. There's a decent chance the capital may even grab it soon too. It's picking up the fissure in 2T, but after that it'll either be the next or second choice I believe. The culture we're getting from the silks is making us pick up new tiles very quickly.

[scooter]

Turn 31

First off, business to attend to. The severely wounded barbarian warrior slammed into my slinger rather than running. Finally, I got what I wanted.








Success! I missed a proper before screenshot, but I also completed Mining and Foreign Trade.





I ran into a small thing that confused me. I placed this Holy Site on the same turn as I placed Stonehenge, but I never sunk any production into it. Was that a mistake? I noticed the cost is 68 production, and I thought I got it at the base price of 54 production. It’s possible I’m remembering wrong, but do you not lock in the production cost until after you’ve sunk a turn into it?





That appears to be a turtle reef tile netting 2/1/1/1 or however the proper way to display it is. That’s neat. I assume that resource is in one of the expansions because I’ve not seen that before. That desert hill tile up against the water is also a potential campus spot being between two reefs for a +4 science. Anyway, this area is obviously a Petra area, but it also claims a few luxuries too, so that will be very important too.





Better one turn late than never?





The Early Empire timing is looking to be very good. Longxi is due to hit size 3 in 4 turns, bringing us up to 6 population and knocking out half of Early Empire. It’ll take 6T to research the other half of it. Given that our builder completes in 4T, I think it may be best to do something else for 2T (maybe even start the next builder given we’re still in the policy for it), then swap into Colonization when Early Empire comes in and immediately start the settler out for our next city. 2T into a Trader might be another okay option given that we finally have capacity for a trade route. Of course, I could just not over-complicate things and start the settler 4T from now and accept 2T of non-boosted yields.

I moved our newest warrior 1NW, and the plan is for him to head up to clear the Barbarian camp in advance of a settling party.

[suboptimal]

I ran into a small thing that confused me. I placed this Holy Site on the same turn as I placed Stonehenge, but I never sunk any production into it. Was that a mistake? I noticed the cost is 68 production, and I thought I got it at the base price of 54 production. It’s possible I’m remembering wrong, but do you not lock in the production cost until after you’ve sunk a turn into it?

The tooltip pop up for districts in the production menu shows the base cost (54 for all the standard districts) at the top of the tip and shows the current, actual cost of the district at the bottom.  You can probably see this by hovering over the Holy Site icon in the other city's production menu.

District build costs are locked as soon as the district is placed, IIRC.

PS - turtle resources were introduced (with amber and olives) in Rise & Fall.