[SPOILERS - El Grillo & Charriu PB51] One step at a time

[Charriu]

I agree with everything

[El Grillo]

T53:

More scouting. There's Ramk's second city. I'm sure he'll have a defender by next turn, so there's no need to impose, but it's great to get city tile visibility. No culture or buildings in there at the moment.



Okay, now there's enough land over here to the east that I'm concerned it might lead to another player to the northeast. Unfortunately our WC took two hits from the Warrior, so it might be best to heal for a little bit, but I need to know what's going on with this map. Maybe I'll just be careful with Sentry vision and only move one tile, or just heal up a turn or two so I have decent odds against most barbarians.



No sign of any 3rd-ring culture to the southwest, that's reassuring.



Internationally, GKC was first to found city #4 this turn. Looks like he's been able to smoothly execute a Warrior-only growth opening, turbocharged by Indian worker efficiency. Maybe he'll neighbor superdeath and get half-eaten by Praetorians

EDIT: Plemo also founded city #4 this turn. Strong play from him as well, and I'm beginning to suspect Commodore may have thought him a green and gave him an extra food resource or something...

Demos:

At home, we finished our Granaries, and the capital will grow a couple of sizes onto our new cottages. I forgot to take a screenshot, but Plemo's Warrior found Springer Mtn and moved adjacent to its borders to get vision on the city tile. I moved the WC back in range to cover the city if he gets greedy. Also, with Meditation finishing next turn, I think I'm going to go ahead with the plan to whip a WC out of Humboldt Forest to size 2, while Springer Mtn will be at size 3, to increase the chances of getting the Holy City there.

[Charriu]

That Moai city spot looks even better now with that wheat.

[El Grillo]

T54:

Turns out there was another resource here, and it's probably worth settling Moai for it even though it loses out on three lighthouse lakes (the crabs give +3 food surplus). This way, Humboldt Forest gets to keep four lakes and grow to a decent size.


With a farm and Civil Service, this site can also reach +12 food surplus and run a bunch of specialists in a GA. One last thing: there are some jungle fish/coast in that area that weren't removed properly. So one, there used to be a land bridge here further east, and two, that fish was added in afterward. Is this where the x-axis wrap used to be?

The Warrior is going to reveal the last tile and then head home for safer fogbusting duties.



Barring some crazy RNG, Heroic Epic unlocked The WC will continue to defog this area on the way north.



Demos:

At home, both cities are growing this turn and henceforth have their Granaries filled. I'm eagerly awaiting a coin-flip for Buddhism, and then another dice roll for the holy city in Springer Mtn

[El Grillo]

T55:

We landed Buddhism, but in Humboldt Forest instead of Springer Mtn. That's not so bad, Humboldt Forest needed something to 2-pop whip for overflow since it makes 5hpt from its best tiles, ruling out the usual Axe/Spear combo. There will be more opportunities for passive spreads too. The plan here is to grow onto the Monastery, then swap to Settler, chop into it, and double-whip with minimum overflow.



Springer Mtn has to be content with whippings its Obelisk for culture. The plan is just to grow on the Granary until size 4 and the borders pop, at which point it can swap to a Worker on all improved tiles. Then the Worker can chop out the rest of the Granary and we can chop/whip a Settler.



Tuolumne Meadow will lose one unhappy face next turn, and the plan is for the two Workers to chop the two riverside forests the turn the city grows to size 6, at which point it will pick up the pigs and plan to 2-pop whip a Settler. We may be able to time the Buddhism revolt while both Settlers are moving, I'll need to check the micro.



The eastern WC will spend a couple of turns healing. The western WC reached 8xp, taking one hit from the Warrior in the process.



Demos:

Ramk founded city #3 on T54, leaving Giraflorens as the last player on two cities.

EDIT: I'm rethinking my next cities, again The northern copper hill site and getting the 2x crab + wheat site started early still seem good to me, but it does hurt a bit to leave that rice + 2x ivory spot unsettled for longterm diplomatic and military considerations. I know that site could be stronger in theory with much higher foodhammer yields, a happiness resource that would be appreciated, and lots of longterm commerce potential, but the fact remains that Ramk would be well within his prerogatives to decide that that's too presumptuous and march a couple of Skirmishers along the defensive terrain and sit on the forested ivory camps, and that city could become a sore point between us for ages to come.

[El Grillo]

T56:

Yeah, after thinking about it a bit more, this Settler going to the coastal site seems best. Still not sure if the capital Settler should go for cow+copper or the western rice + floodplains hill. I do actually need copper units at some point, right...?


Now the question with city #4 is whether to settle on the plains hill (save a forest, less BFC forests, more coast, needs a border pop for wheat + second crab) or the forested grass hill (removes a forest, more BFC forests, less coast, wheat in range immediately). We aren't building a Missionary any time soon (can put either 10h or 20h of overflow into the Monastery from the Settler), but I think I can make the plains hill work. At worst, the second Work Boat can do some exploration around Jungle Fish island.

Demos:

Top power added another copper unit, but it doesn't seem to be either of our neighbors. Superdeath is doing more 1-pop whips, EXP Worker spam maybe?

[Charriu]

I would go for the plains hill. This city is so close to the holy city, that you have a good chance of a random spread.

[El Grillo]

Good point, how many roads would the plains hill need to be connected via the lake (and thus eligible for passive spread), just the one flat grassland forest?

Also, what would you think about making an Oracle play for Metal Casting?

[Charriu]

I would have guessed yes the flat grassland only, but better make a quick sim for that.

About Metal Casting. That depends on how many Industrious players we have. Do we already have Writing? If not I would at least tech Priesthood before that.

EDIT: Stupid me we are working on it

[El Grillo]

We’re 20% of the way to Writing with 4t remaining, and Priesthood was a 3t tech when I checked last turn. We have enough gold to 100% either, but probably not both. The only IND player is Giraflorens who already built Stonehenge and is still on two cities.

The main constraint with rushing Oracle is how many precious Worker turns it would take to chop 4 forests into it, but we definitely want Forges in most cities and we look to have a decent amount of FIN Colossus coast to work between the long coastline and two visible islands.