[SPOILERS] Tatan, as the glorious Shaka of France!

[SleepingMoogle]

If you're building the Settler at size 4, you'll probably want to 2-pop slave him to speed things up a little. And definitely go for brown dot first. In the current location, all of red dot's resources are in the second ring. Even if you were to chop out a monument (which you need Mysticism for), it will take too long for the city to become productive this early in the game. I would explore the remaining fogged tiles first or at least consider moving the city closer to the resources if you want to plant it in the near future.

Edit: Oh, and if anything, move brown dot 1E. That will place all food resources in your first ring, doesn't give up production and brings it closer to your capital as well.

[Tatan]

Okay, sounds good; second city will go on the tile 1NW of the silver.

Why do you want to slave the settler out, though? The workers have nothing better to do immediately [pottery in ~4 turns], and if I chop this settler, I can continue working the gems tile while I build more workers and then eventually whip out another settler.

If I whip now, BC will have to wait to start building more workers while it grows back to at least size 3 [and I want to be larger when I train workers in order to get max expansive bonus]. Maybe I'm missing something, but chopping seems more efficient ATM than whipping.

Also, after pottery, where should we go tech-wise? I guess important near-future techs would be Mysticism [monuments], Writing [library+gems=], and Hunting [eventually, if only for the deer], in roughly that order; thoughts?

[SleepingMoogle]

Hmm, other than the Corn and Gems, there's no other tiles that are really attractive to work right? And even the Gems aren't necessarily the best this early in the game. Once you have placed down some cottages, you probably want to have the population to work them, but right now it's really more efficient to try and whip out workers and settlers every 10 turns and regrowing that population in between by focusing on food-heavy tiles. Although with just one food resource, it might help to build a Granary first.

Also, keep in mind that Libraries provide culture too. If you place your cities so that most resources are in the inner ring, you can potentially skip Monuments altogether and wait for Libraries since you don't really need the border pops right away.

[Tatan]

Hmm, you're probably right. In that case, how is this [incredibly vague] plan:

-double-whip settler out, he heads for the horsey-dot.
-regrow BC while working on a granary [which can eventually be chopped]

then maybe build 1-2 workers and another settler?


Also, good point regarding libraries; writing should probably be researched next, in that case [pottery just came in at the end of turn].


And some quick over-all game thoughts:
Rushing someone would be difficult on this map, because even with the railroads it takes quite a while to travel around. Additionally, any gains made would have really massive distance maintenance costs. So I don't expect much, if any, warfare until the medieval period. So here is what I think we should do: REXpand all over the nearby fertile territory, using our Exp workers to keep up in tile improvements. Assuming no one attacks, and assuming that barbs don't magically defy the game options, we can probably get away with hardly any military AT ALL, coasting on Agg as a deterrent until we've expanded into all available juicy locations, after which we can whip a defensive army of maces out or something. Anyway, my two cents for the next 60 turns of the game.

[Tatan]

Pottery in, research set to writing (4 turns).

Settler will become double-whippable next turn.

No pics or fancy things, because there continues to be not a lot going on.

[Tatan]

Settler is currently in position to settle the city next turn [I might finally post a pic!]. Gold Ergo Sum found me with a scout, so that just leaves Amelia. And I finally uncovered the entirety of my block of land, so I'll post an updated dot-map.


Game-mechanics question: so, I know that when someone you haven't met circumnavigates the globe or discovers Liberalism, you get this message that goes something like, "an unknown civilizations has circumnavigated the globe". So I presume that everyone else in this game got that message. The question is: will someone who contacted me after I got circumnavigation be able to see retroactively that it was me? I.E. can GES tell I circumnavigated the globe right now?

[T-hawk]

will someone who contacted me after I got circumnavigation be able to see retroactively that it was me?

Good question. I don't think the owner of circumnavigation can be seen directly in the game. But I think the extra movement point does show up on your boats when another player looks at them.

[Tatan]

Okay, thanks T-hawk. Might be something I can exploit later.


Founded city last turn:



Woot, more horrible movie references. For you guessers out there, the warrior guarding it is named "Eegah!" [exclamation mark included ].


As of Turn 31, the workers have farmed the wheat, and will begin pasturing the horses.

[Tatan]

Writing is IN, I set research to Hunting, because I couldn't think of anything better and we need camps eventually anyway. Likewise, Fishing should be researched within the next 2-3 techs so that I can pick up that juicy seafood.

But I'm kind of at a loss for what else to research towards. Iron Working is a must eventually in order to clear that jungle, but that can be put off for a while. Monarchy is in the same category [without religion and the wonders, the line up to Monarchy is a little lackluster, and HR can wait for a bit]. I'm not rushing anyone, so HBR is out. As much as I've railed against early wonders, the Aesthethics line could be worth looking into for the wonders [just not right now]. But after consideration, I think what appeals the most short-term [and mid-term] is probably Mathematics. With the fairly abundant forests, extra hammers from chopping will help loads, and Math leads to the two critical techs for sustaining REX, Currency and Code of Laws. Actually, we could even look into founding Confucianism, if it is still available. And if it's still around after we expand to 5-6 cities, Hanging Gardens could be worth picking up, too. Thoughts?


In other news, I asked GES and MarSpirits for Espionage Agreements to limit spending at 43 EPs. Both of them have been fairly chatty and forthcoming [GES even gave directions to Amelia], so I might be able to turn them into allies, or at least trade-buddies.


And I SWEAR that a dot-map is forthcoming. Pinky promise!

[Tatan]

Before I go into the dots, let me add a few thoughts about the pre-existing cities:

-Boggy Creek [corn, gems]
Still not completely sure how to develop BC. It has too many riverside grassland tiles to forsake cottages, and yet too many hills to forsake production. I guess it will have to be a hybrid.

-Shadow Mountain [wheat, deer, silver, horses]
I think it's looking more and more like this should be a production city. After all, of my initial crop of cities production will be a little scarce, and this site has some of the most hills of any site at all [and enough food to work them, provided I farm around a little].


And now, a dot-by-dot guide, in rough order of importance:

-Red Dot [copper, stone, pigs]
My nomination for third city. There are better locations, but copper should be acquired sooner rather than later, and this location is relatively close the capital. Although the stone and copper will give it decent production, this spot will ultimately do better as a cottage paradise due to the abundance of river grassland. That production will help knock out key science buildings, though. The main disadvantage of this site is that its best resources are second-ring; however, I could not figure out a way to avoid that without wasting precious grassland.

-Green Dot [gold, shared corn, some floodplains]
This is another priority site. I'm not sure what should be done with this site, though; it has just enough floodplains [and that gold] to cry out for a commerce site, and yet has enough hills to make it subpar for all-out commerce. Doesn't matter a whole lot, though, because this site will be awesome no matter what. I think commerce in the beginning, while gradually morphing into a hybrid mid-/late-game is prolly the best option.

-Blue Dot [double crabs, some floodplains]
No hills at all, so the choice of commerce is obvious. After some thought, I think this would probably make the best site for the Globe. After all, the best size for whipping is around size 5 or 6 [at least in efficiency of hammers-per-pop, I *think*], and at size 6 Blue could work the two clams and four westernmost floodplains for an excess of 10 food per turn [14 if I farmed the floodplains], which would make for a whipping machine.

-Pink Dot [double clams]
Pretty much the same as Blue Dot, although the addition of hills for some actual production. Probably going to end up as the Moai site, especially if Blue Dot becomes the Globe site, which will end up giving it some solid production after I grow onto those coasts [after growing onto the cottaged-river tiles, natch].

-Orange Dot [shared corn, sheep, fur]
Mostly a filler, but still pretty good. With five hills, I'd say that it would do best as a production-crank, with those river-side grasslands getting farmed. It could do reasonably well as a commerce city [or a hybrid], but I feel like I don't have enough solid production cities lined up.

-Brown Dot [double cows]
Again, a filler city, but still decent. Add in some farms, and this would also make a pretty good production city.

-Yellow Dot [n/a]
Total filler city, its only redeeming quality the large number of riverside grasslands. Will be a cottage-cheese city, of course. The huge number of forests could also be good for chopping out a wonder eventually, Bluebell Woods-style.

-Black Dot [wheat, ivory, bananas]
Black Dot will be essentially a glorified guard-post, but the wheat and the abundance of grasslands will still make it easily worth founding. I guess it would also do best as a cottage-spam site, given the lack of hills.

-Lime Dot [wheat, ivory, shared rice]
Like Black Dot, only with a large number of crappy jungles. Looking at the map again, maybe it should be moved 1S for coastal access, giving up a total of 3 non-shared tiles [two jungle flats and one jungle hill].

-White Dot [n/a]
More filler-crap, only this one can't even really be completely cottage over. Enough farms, and it *might* end up as a serviceable production city.

-Teal Dot [shared rice, marble, banana]
Ha-ha-ha-ha, there is no way I am settling this one until almost every other site is filled. Don't get me wrong, it will make a great cottage-cheese city after that jungle is cleared, but the worker-power required for that will simply be enormous.

-The Gray Dots
Ah, finally, the little random dots all over the place which I didn't even bother to outline. These are going to be waiting to be founded for a loooong time, with the one exception of the dot west of White Dot [it has a fish, incense, and wheat]. They will all be total filler cities, with the sole purpose of taking up space and buffering my real cities.


Annnnd, that's all! Comments are welcome.

Development plans:
So, I want a third city already. So my plan is to grow to size four while working on something else [I already have a granary and a garrison ready for the third city, so I guess a barracks would be the best option], and then do the usual switch-and-whip at size four. Thoughts?