kjn's Ryde (spoilers!)

[kjn]

While waiting for TheStick to send the turn on, I worked a little bit on my sandbox. The discovery of that mirrored marble makes it possible to more or less work out the entire map.

I'm going to name my area of the word the left-oriented one, since my lake is turned leftwards.

TZ started 5E 7S of myself and his land is turned rightwards. One team started 6N 11E of myself, and they are turned downwards. The upwards team started 6W 11N of myself. The distance from the downwards team to the upwards team is 5N 7E.

This will help a lot in my scouting, since I can see that the largest holes in my exploration lies to not to my northeast (that's where I can find downwards) but that I should prioritise the NNE, where the cows+FP tiles form a circle around a 4x4 area. I should also prioritise scouting my west and southwest around the lake.

[kjn]

T45 - 1300 BC

No notifications this turn either. With two incoming barbs against Fröderyd the barracks will have to wait, another skirmisher is needed. I also micro Fröderyd for max benefit of the forge - the barracks will be the next build here, and the overflow from the skirmisher will amount to almost a third of its build cost.




Next turn I will switch from the silver to the deer camp, for +7F. I should probably build a farm for Fröderyd as well, 1N of the silver, but it will have to wait.

Ryd is microed to within an inch of its life, so I can 3-pop whip the settler next turn. On the whip turn I will work the sheep, the ivory, and the engineer, giving 2F and 8+2H.




The newly built skirmisher - Fana - goes NE to support founding Alseda. Docka moves to 1S of the banana to help out. Elg attacks the barb to the west, but takes a beating. Luckily, he was at 5XP so can pick up Shock and heal. And look! I definitely can see myself planting a city 2W of the horses.




That leaves my two workers to the west. With little to do until the city is founded, they finish the cottage 1S of the sheep.

End turn. The barbs moves as expected, onto the silver and NE to 2SW of Fröderyd.

Foreign developments and C&D

Demos after ending turn:

Lava grew back to size 7, and TZ grew their second city to size 3, 2t after growing to size 2. Pretty good management that.

The amount of land tiles increased, and the reported population average didn't fit with the calculated, so AT exchanged his size 2 city with two of size 1, one whipped and one new. I know it's not Catwalk, since he is rival best in pop at 246000. Note that AT's second city has been whipped twice now from size 3 on T42. The new city claims 7 land tiles.

The numbers on the victory screen don't fit with the one reported from my pop spread sheet. I have 9 of the 39 civilised population, or 23%, but according to the victory screen I have 20%. Are barbarian cities included in this calculation? That would fit perfectly with barbarian cities with 6 pop. Yayoi has 2, so two more barb cities with 2 pop each would explain that nicely.

I took a look at the religions screen this time too, where we get the following values:

Judaism 4%
Hinduism 6%
Buddhism 20%

When I look up the function to calculate relgious influence, it seems to use total population, which would include barbs. The influence from each city seems to be:

(City_size + religions_in_city / 2) / religions_in_city

Ie, a city of size 7 with 2 religions in it would count as 4 for each religion. Now, to try to apply this to Catwalk's cities...

Judaism gets 2 total influence, Hinduism gets 3, and Buddhism gets 9. Catwalk has cities of size 6, 5, and 2. And then make a spread sheet which calculates influence based on city size and number of religions.

2 fits with being the only influence in a size 2 city and being one of three in a size 5 city.

3 fits with being one of two in a size 5 city.

9 fits with being the only religion in a size 6 city and one of two in a size 5 city.

Ie, I'm pretty sure Catwalk has Judaism in his size 2 city, Buddhism in his capital, and both Hinduism and Buddhism in his size 5 city. And this calculation took far too long time, so don't expect me to do it again for a long time...

[waterbat]

great job with it - now what does knowing which of his cities has which religion do to help your plan for total world domination?

[kjn]

great job with it - now what does knowing which of his cities has which religion do to help your plan for total world domination?

No idea, really, but I was curious what Catwalk is spending his hammers on, and if he might be building missionaries. He doesn't appear to be that crazy, however.

[kjn]

I took another look at the power graph, and my conjecture about TZ being the top power proved to be false. They increased their power with 1000 to T46, to 58000. Ie, either AT or Catwalk is the rival best in power.

What's strange is that the rival average didn't change at the same time. One possibility is a warrior build combined with the loss of an archer, but it still seems pretty strange.

[kjn]

T46 - 1240BC

My new skirmisher Gööt killed the barb on the silver mine, taking a single hit, and only then I noted that AT had ran up a war chariot 2N of the barb. The WC will only be 5 vs 5.1 in strength, but best to line up another skirmisher in Fröderyd. Guess I'll have to whip the barracks instead.




My workers finish the mine 1S of the ivory, and I set Fröderyd to work that tile instead of the silver. I want as much food as possible while one-turning the skirmisher, but it means I won't reach size 4 this turn.

And the whip in Ryd comes in.




Note that I could work the ivory instead of the rice and gain one hammer, but it would be lost due to rounding (35 v 36 divided by 1.25), so better that Fröderyd works that tile. I should be back to size 5 in 2t.

In the east Docka moves to the banana, while Fana stays put for now. By staying on the road he can react to any movements from AT's WC eastwards.

And what to do with the eastern workers? I have fourteen improved tiles, but only two cities of size 3 each. I send them to the copper, and cover them with Fana. They can road next turn and speed up the setlting of Alseda with 1t.

Happily, I note that I can retreat Gööt back to Fröderyd.

End turn. The barb in the southwest moves away from Elg, up onto the hill. Ryd grows back to size 4 while building the settler, but I only get 26 overflow from it, not 28 as I first had thought. Anyone who knows the reason for that?

Math on T49, even with my suppressed current GNP.

Foreign development and C&D

No notifications this turn either. Demos after ending turn:

Again I'll have to make a manual land points adjustment, 16 points to me and AT, and -28 to TZ (due to their lost second city).

That gives 14 to Catwalk (13 to 14 pop), 13 to AT (9 to 10 pop), and 12 to TZ (a classical tech).

Doing the GNP calculation backwards tells that TZ researched Mathematics. Total population in demos rose 6000, so with the increase in land it's Catwalk that has settled a fourth city and AT grew his second city back to size 2.

Total power rose 12000. Of this, 6000 was TZ researching Math, and 2000 was pop, leaving 4000 for units.

[kjn]

Planning ahead

I just whipped Ryd, so will have whip anger until T52. I do however have 8 happy total, so the city can still reach size 6 with stacked whip anger.

Alseda will need to take over the sheep, starting next turn. It will get 4F 4H net from T47 onwards. Will need a granary ASAP.

I will get my first GP on T53 as well, about fifty-fifty between a Prophet and a Great Engineer. If I get a prophet I think the best option is to tech Monotheism and bulb Theology. The good point of that religion is that I get a free missionary, but I won't be able to take advantage of OR anyway for the Pyramids.

With a GE I get lots more options, but I think bulbing Machinery followed by teching IW would be quite strong. Or I can use him to build the Pyramids in another city... Alseda would be the best spot, I think.

My workers can move onto the three forests on T48, and chop T49-51, which would be too early for the Pyramids, most likely.

The three chops will give 105 hammers. The current whip overflow and hammer-heavy turn will give 63, and I can assume the the next one will give a similar amount. That leaves 104 hammers to slowbuild, unless I put in two whips on the poor city (probably 5->3 whips then).

Ryd can give 10H working ivory, engineer, and mine, 17 post-bonus. It will take 7t of them, for a total of 11t to the Pyramids (7t slowbuild, 2t whip overflow, 1t whip, and 1t whip pre-build), which very well might be too late - Catwalk has had Masonry since T34. If I can put two 60H whip overflows into the Pyramids, I will only need to slowbuild 47H, but I will need one more turn to pre-build a whip.

If I take back the clam T48 Ryd will get back to +8F. Might be something to consider.

Anyway, it seems I won't be able to build the Pyramids in less than 10t or so. The earlier ultra-early Pyramids were fueled by access to Stone. If I had the OR bonus, things would be much simpler...

I think I will need to put some C&D efforts onto Catwalk...

[kjn]

More information leakage from the Civ 4 graphics engine:




Isn't it neat? I can see the fracture lines where the elements of the toroidal map meet together, but I can also see one tile covered with Catwalk's culture. I already had a reasonable suspicion that he was up there, since AT first appeared with a warrior on my southwest, but still nice to have it confirmed.

Anyway, a look at the pattern of Catwalk's land progression. A holy city will expand borders in 1t, and per my earlier analysis I think Judaism was founded in his third city.

T20 his second city was founded, and it expanded borders on T22. His capital expanded borders to third-ring on T25, and on T29 his second city expanded to third-ring (helped by being double-holy from T28). On T38 his third city was founded, got Judaism, and expanded to second-ring borders on T39. His last city was founded T46.

So, what I see there is his culturally claimed silver tile, which makes me think that he hasn't put any cities in my direction yet.

[kjn]

T47 - 1180 BC

Again no notifications. AT's war chariot went back into the fog.

My two workers in the northeast roaded the tile, and thus my settler could settle the city on the same turn that it was built. It takes over the sheep from Ryd, and I need to finish the granary there ASAP. I think I will limit the city to a single whip before I can get the banana online, will have to see if it's best to whip the granary or the mint.




Ouch on the costs here.




Ryd will grow back to size 6 in 3t, though at the cost of stunting the growth at Fröderyd, which is set to slowbuild a barracks. I will probably whip a worker here in a few turns if I can pry away the clam from Ryd for a few turns.

Elg goes 1S, where he can hit the barb warrior wherever it goes next turn. The workers in the west road the deer tile. Strictly makework, but I have more tiles developed than I can use right now, though I'm going to be growing very quickly over the next four turns

End turn. The barb on the hill suicides against Elg, who now is up to 8XP but has to spend some turns healing.

Foreign development and C&D

After continued land point adjustment:

I gained 26 points and 2 pop. Catwalk gained 43 land points but lost 27 other points, going from pop 14 to pop 12. AT gained 14 points, going from pop 10 to 11. TZ gained 13 points, going from pop 8 to pop 9.

No city settlements, and the city screen tells me Lava is up to size 8, that Catwalk's capital was whipped to size 4, and that Sternum stayed size 5. That means TZ's second city - New Scapula according to the victory screen - grew to size 4.

Rival worst and total in soldiers shrank with 1000, so Catwalk is the rival worst at 58000. TZ has a power of 67000 and is the rival best.

So a total pop gain of 2 world-wide, and no barb growths. Putting the new pop numbers together with my earlier projection of Catwalk's distribution of religions gives a good fit, with 14% for Buddhism, being shared in his size 5 city and alone in his size 4 capital.

[kjn]

Some other minor stuff that I forgot to note:

TZ has stayed constant at 150 EP at me for a while now. I should've put in all my EP against AT before rolling turn. They have also just finished a build in his capital, which has stayed stuck at size 5 for 4t now.

Probably a worker build, but it might be a 4t-settler, maybe aided by a chop.