[Spoilers]C6PBEM23: Krill sidles yonder, and probably fails

[Krill]

Wait, WTF. Tiny?

[Krill]

I had to take a step back and go generate a map on tiny, because I hadn't read the settings when I picked Yongle. I'd been generating Small maps. This is my mistake, and I own that.

Tiny is tight. I do't know if I would have piocked Yongle if I had realised it is Tiny. I could explore this issue, but not now whilst I hold the turn.

I think that I'm in a bit of a bind. Pangaea, tight map, tundra to the south and ocean to the north. I'm probably on a peninsula. Good for defense, bad for expansion. Only 5 City states, they will get removed from the board quickly. I don't know if I can afford to leave a CS up for someone else. I probably need to be aggressive, unless the CS is "behind" me and I can take it at a time that works for me. Yongle needs to get a single city to size 10 to alleviate culture/science/gold issues, and just counting tiles I'm struggling to see how this city gets to size 10. There's a few hammers going but I'll be leaning on Lilja to get there, and I need a granary and monument down ASAP anyway.

If I were to wander, I run the risk of moving to the end of a peninsula and losing both expansion and vertical growth prospects. I risk moving close to someone who could then rush me. So I need to settle in place or on one of the available tiles. I checked and two other players didn't settle on T1. I decided to move away from the marsh and against the ocean: I can't build VA so coastal IZ doesn't matter that much, working coast isn't actually bad for Yongle post-size 10, and I have a potential path through Henge (and Great Bath actually) towards harbours.




I count 9 decent tiles to work, but all except one are second ring so I need a monument. I'm probably going to have to buy one of the stone tiles, possibly both, but 3 stone tiles = Craftmanship inspiration for a single tech, or the tile picker goes for the turtle (it takes lux over bonus resources right?) in which case I get the amenity to power growth to size 4. I could go Sailing/Builder first and do a little naval exploring with the builder bfore returning to improvetwo stone tiles. Three quarries and the turtle gives means Lilja will boost growth by 6fpt from size 4, so for quick bursts will be helpful. Question is how many settlers to get out of the capital before Magnus Provision kicks in, and I want these out ASAP.

I suspect the answer here is to try and get one quick settler out, but builder>settler feels damned risky.

• If I don't go builder first, I can only half build a monument, and an expensive warrior is an insurance policy against barbs only.
  
• Scout is a waste without huts.
  
• Slinger needs to pair up with the warrior and even then feels wasteful if I can get a quick Crafstmanship inspiration.

Sailing should take about 11-12 turns to complete, so a builder first improves the turtles ASAP for a 3/1/1 tile and then Mining completes after another 9 turns or so. If Mining first, the quarry is up a two turns faster.

I need the second city to sacrifice itself to get the capital to size 10 ASAP. That means a size 2 hammer powerhouse. The only options are west of the Game tile, or east of the Volcano. Both have 2/2 tiles available. I think the warrior might need to explore around the lake and return through the tundra then go west. The build can explore the western coast if I go Sailing first. I can improve 3 tiles, get into Agoge quickly enough and churn out a bunch of warriosr and slingers if needed, but this might impact on getting down a monument and granary.

Questions for lurkers:

• How does the tile picker work for border expansions? Are there any mechanics explanations posted in other games?
  
• In a game with disaster level set to 0, will rivers ever flood etc? And depending on this answer, will tile yeilds ever increase?
  

[Krill]

I'm going to reiterate a major point here: I have no clue what I am doing. If I speak about a mechanic and I am wrong, please take the sentence as a question about the mechanic. I've played three games of civ 6 to completion: PBEM5, which was a loss, PBEM22 where I dis what Thrawn told me to so, and a single player game which was as far from competitive as you can imagine.

[Krill]

Cheers.

Does buying a tile increase the culture cost of the next tile?

[Krill]

Thanks for that confirmation, there was conflicting information online. I think this tightens up the plan to buy the turtle and force the tile picker to then grab the two stone tiles, and go Sailing first.

[Krill]

I am a doofus.

I forgot that on strategic view the fourth yield gets hidden by the resource icon, I should have remembered this from PBEM22. The reef turtles are 3f/1p/1g/1b, so that's pretty solid.

Counting tiles, it will take until T11/T12 to circle around the lake, and I think this is better as it allows the worker to head north and circle clockwise to the stone. With any luck the northern stone gets picked up and I can get a bit more scouting in (just wait for a barb galley to eat the builder first!)

I need a theme for city names. And I hope Whosit can play soon so we can get another turn in tonight.

[Krill]

Hey Thrawn (or any other lurker that knows) if you don't mind being a walking encyclopedia a bit more, I got another question: does the appeal of the tile take into account the tile feature on it, ie does a marsh tile that is -1 appeal increase to 0 appeal if the marsh is chopped? I think the answer is no but I just want to make sure.

[Krill]

Turn 2




I'm going with hairstyles for city names. It's a dreadful theme, so someone should suggest a better one ASAP.

I still have one turn to decide if I want to go Mining first and quarry two tiles. Overflow rules might push me in that direction (two quarries = 9 turn settler, regrow to size 2 quicker). I'll probably swap next turn.





TAD still wandering.


For reference:

[Krill]

Having thought a bit more about it I'm going to go Mining first and get the settler before growth@3 using two quarries. The builder can chill for a little bit. Doing it this way should be worth about half a monument but the cost is in the scouting and means I need to prioritise galleys (and the policy card! So hope for another continent to the west).

[Krill]

Turn 3




I think TAD settled this turn. Also note that I can settle a second city for both desert and tundra. There's got to be a wonder that turns all of that into usable land, right? It's already looking like western expansion is necessary as that is where the land is, it just doesn't look particularly worthwhile. But if I'm on a land bridge, well, I'm probably dead in the long run. It's going to be very difficult to get a city with a harbour (never mind coastal) to the west as an early city.

Question: If I settle a city on the lake, and then build a canal to access the ocean, could the lake city then build boats?




If the tile picker picks a stone over that turtle I'm going to wuestion how that was coded. Not that I'm bothered: I'll have to buy a tile either way, but I would prefer it to pick the northern stone as that saves me a turn on a settler, and possible quite a bit of food.